I'm Not Afraid Of You
by I.Must.Break.You
Summary: Set after Ichigo loses his Soul Reaper powers after his battle with Aizen. Ichigo is content with being normal, and an unlikely collision with a shy brunette in the school hall forms a new friendship between the two of them. Perhaps even more. Rated M for a suggestive event, and some swearing. Just to be safe. Ichigo/Michiru.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright. So, here's another Bleach story I've been working on for…let's just say** _ **a while**_ **.**

 **College has basically killed off any writing time I have during a week, so writing out chapters takes a while.**

 **So I had a poll on my Profile Page to gauge your opinions between Michiru, Ryo and Mahana in a romance with Ichigo.**

 **Lol, since I don't have that big of a fan base, only thirteen people voted. Thanks, guys!**

 **Anyway, here's the end result of that pole.**

 **May I please ask for those of you who are also Elfen Lied fans to vote on a new poll on my Profile Page. Please. It would be greatly appreciated and helpful, as I am planning on writing an Elfen Lied-Bleach crossover. So please vote, PLEASE!**

 **Anyway back to the story.**

 **I don't own anything regarding Bleach, or its characters. It is owned by Tite Kubo, This is solely fan-made.**

 **Chapter One: What's this boring thing called again? Oh right: School!:**

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*YAWN*

School, what a wretched thing it is. Who had even thought of creating the troublesome compulsion? Long periods of non-stop concentration, absorption of different kinds of sometimes-useless information. Short break periods, excess homework, and listening to your teachers' blabbering while it almost literally bored you to death.

That was Ichigo Kurosaki's viewpoint on the matter, at least.

It has been roughly thirteen months since he had defeated the evil tyrant/traitor/warlord ex-Soul Reaper known as Sosuke Aizen. Thirteen months since he sacrificed a part of his soul in order to ensure the safety of three- no four- worlds. Thirteen months since he had given up his Soul Reaper powers.

This included the ability to see the spirits of the 'dearly departed', as he usually put it. Giving up his Soul Reaper powers meant that he also sacrificed his Zanpakuto, both the sword and the spirit of said sword that resided in his mind.

Yes, Zangetsu, who was destined to spend an eternity alongside his wielder, instead had to be sacrificed in order to protect something much bigger than one Substitute Soul Reaper and his Zanpakuto, while Ichigo was now destined to live out the rest of his natural life as a normal human being.

One that was not spiritually aware. As it was meant to be. As he wanted it to be. Right?

Damn right!

That was exactly the life that Ichigo dreamt of: Being a normal teenager, whose only worries are passing all of his subjects and studying for exams. Unfortunately for the young orange-haired teenager though, he had to write a special exam for each of his eight subjects- all within the space of two weeks -the previous month in order to make up for missing so much school during his heroic Soul Reaper days.

Luckily he passed all the special exams and was now finally back on par with the other learners regarding schoolwork.

Was he happy about it?

Absolutely.

He was finally normal, just like he always wanted.

*YAWN*

Yet another yawn escaped his mouth from where he sat on the left-hand side of the classroom, next to the windows.

Misato Ochi- That's Ms. Ochi to you! And to every other learner in this school, as a matter of fact. -was standing in front of the black board, writing down the solution to some Math problem she had been discussing and explaining for most of the period. Ichigo had zoned her rambling out quite some time ago and instead kept himself busy by staring at his reflection in the window next to him, or by staring at his desk while resting his head on his fist.

He let out a long sigh through his nose, before turning his attention to the people around him, suddenly realising that they were much more interesting than his reflection, and thus he decided to study their respective facial expressions instead.

Sitting two rows to his right was Keigo Asano, the genuine loudmouth of his so-called group of friends. When he wasn't blindly charging at Ichigo from out of nowhere, he was ogling at various girls that were enrolled at Karakura High. At the moment though, he was surprisingly quiet, seeing as he was fast asleep, with his head resting on his folded arms. His Math textbook was conveniently placed upright to hide his sleeping face from Ms. Ochi's view.

Ichigo let out an internal sigh at Keigo's antics, before he redirected his gaze past the brown-haired loudmouth, his eyes settling on Mizuiro Kojima. Despite his young and childish appearance, Mizuiro was well-known for being a real ladies man- Bordering more towards a playboy, as per say.-. And while it looked as if the black-haired teen was diligently paying attention to what Ms. Ochi was explaining, Ichigo knew that the content written on the board was definitely the last thing Mizuiro was thinking about. Rumour has it that he was currently dating _three_ different girls, and Ichigo was fairly certain that those girls were on his mind instead.

Glancing towards the seat in front of Keigo; Ichigo laid eyes on Yasutora Sado, better known as Chad.

Chad was quite literally…a silent giant: The man was freaking huge! And yet he hardly ever made so much as a sound unless he was spoken to. He may have come off as scary to most of the people in school, but Ichigo trusted Chad with his life. Long ago, the two of them swore to watch each other's backs, no matter what the situation. The brown-haired giant accompanied him to the Soul Society in his quest to save Rukia Kuchiki from wrongful execution. Chad even accompanied him to Hueco Mundo, the vast desert-like world of Hollows, to save Orihime Inoue from Aizen's clutches. He had evidently risked his own life countless times for Ichigo, and the orange-haired teen considered him to be one of his closest friends.

At the moment, Chad was sitting at his desk, his usual nonchalant, laidback expression plastered on his face. But Ichigo just knew that he was intently taking note of what Ms. Ochi was saying and writing down. He was ranked tenth in their grade, for crying out loud!

Two seats further in front of Chad, sat Uryu Ishida. Uryu was one of the last descendants of the Quincy, spiritually-aware humans who had the power to absorb spirit particles, known as Reishi, and then manipulate that Reishi into spiritual weapons in order to combat Hollows. They are also the self-proclaimed mortal enemies of Soul Reapers, because of the fact that most of the Quincy were wiped out by the Soul Reapers about 200 years ago for reasons Ichigo did not quite understand. It had something to do with the way that the Quincy disposed of Hollows, as it apparently destroyed a balance of some sorts between the different dimensions, or something like that. Ichigo was under the impression that Uryu was the last Quincy in existence, up until a few months back, that is, when his father had told him that Uryu's father was also a Quincy, which meant that there was a grand total of two known Quincy in existence.

Despite Uryu's insistence that they were in fact enemies, Ichigo knew that it was merely a façade that Uryu put up in front of everyone. His statement was also factually untrue for several reasons. The first reason for this was that Ichigo was no longer a Soul Reaper, but a normal human. The second reason: Despite their so-called 'feud', Uryu never once hesitated in accompanying Ichigo to the Soul Society or Hueco Mundo. They had each other's backs, even though they would never admit it to anyone.

Uryu not only had a nerdy appearance,- According to Ichigo, that is. -he also had a nerdy GPA, and was ranked first in their grade, plus he took Handicrafts as a subject. Thus it was no surprise to see his books closed and neatly placed to his left, while his hands were folded in front of him on the desk, signalling that he was done with the work for today, along with the probability that his answers were also all correct.

Ichigo inwardly scoffed at the fact that Uryu was not only done with his Maths for the day, but he could also relax the rest of the period without even getting into trouble!

Focussing his eyes to the right of Uryu's desk, he laid eyes on Orihime Inoue, who was busy writing the contents on the board down in her book. Upon closer inspection though, he noticed a few creative drawings here-and-there in between the relevant information.

Ah, Orihime. Sweet little Orihime: So child-like and innocent, yet she possessed such incredible powers. And, while she acted sort of ditzy and appeared to be living in her own little world most of the time, the orange-haired teen knew that a there was a side of her that was deadly serious.

Truth be told: He had known almost nothing about the brunette, except that her brother was killed in a car accident a few years prior to him gaining his Soul Reaper powers.

Her own unique powers were awakened by being in his presence, where his Spirit Energy had helped speed up the process. And she didn't hesitate once to help him when the time came for them to invade Soul Society in order to save Rukia, a place where her extraordinary healing powers proved to be an invaluable asset.

A few months after that, she had allowed herself to be kidnapped by Ulquiorra Cifer, the Fourth Espada in Aizen's army of Arrancar, in order to protect them all from getting injured, or worse.

Stupid. _Very_ stupid. But at the same time, very brave.

Ichigo allowed a small, fond smile to creep onto his face, before turning his attention to the person sitting to the right of Orihime's desk: Ryo Kunieda.

Except that she was ranked second in their grade, and also an athletic track and field star; Ichigo knew almost nothing about the black-haired girl. He noticed that she was currently reading a book that was conveniently placed on top of her open Math book in order to avoid suspicion, which led the orange-haired teen to assume that she liked reading?

He was also pretty sure that she was good friends with Orihime, as he almost always saw them eating lunch together, be it under their favourite tree at the edge of the school grounds, or on the school's rooftop.

Ichigo's eyes next moved to the seat in front of Ryo's, where they fell on Mahana Natsui, who was looking at the back of Ms. Ochi's head with mild interest. Her shortish, curly brown hair and equally brown eyes went along nicely with her tanned skin. From what he had heard during one of Orihime's rather pointless ramblings, Mahana was a very curious girl, and would sometimes blabber out random questions or info, usually not having a clue about what she was talking about at all.

He really, _really_ didn't know much about the girl, except that she was also part of Orihime's group of girlfriends. It was at this point where Ichigo also noticed that the two top buttons of Mahana's shirt was undone, and thus revealing her somewhat impressive cleavage…

A red hue slowly made its way across the bridge of Ichigo's nose and cheeks as he now found himself staring…at Mahana's chest.

The orange-haired teen diverted his gaze, trying to focus on anything but Mahana and her…assets, and quickly found his eyes landing on the person sitting to Mahana's right: Michiru.

Michiru Ogiti, was it?

No, no. It's not that!

Ogre?

Origami?

No!

Ichigo silently fumed, his teeth gritted in slight frustration. Kami, he _sucked_ with names sometimes. How was it possible that he knew Mahana and Ryo's surnames right off the bat, but had no clue what Michiru's was?

' _Ogashitori?'_

No.

' _O-Oganga?'_

Nope.

Ichigo tried remembering the girl's surname for a few moments longer, before he sighed in defeat, and opted to look at what Michiru was _doing_ instead. He found that she was dutifully making notes of what Ms. Ochi was writing down on the board, a small, content smile gracing her lips as her eyes darted between the board and her book.

He knew that the petite little brunette was also friends with Orihime and the rest of the girls in their group, and that she also took Handicrafts as a subject, which he knew only because he saw Uryu fix a tear in one of her dolls once, when he was partially stalking the Quincy for a while.

But the rest was blank. Michiru, for some reason or another, always made herself scarce when he was around Orihime and co. Thus he didn't have a clue about anything regarding Michiru…Origathi?

' _It's not Origathi, damn it!'_

Did he scare her or something? He was sure that he would have known what her surname was if she didn't always shy away like she did! He found himself staring at the side of her head, internally demanding the brunette to answer his unvoiced questions.

Realizing that his silent questions won't be answered, Ichigo decided to continue his venture through the classroom, as his eyes next landed on Chizuru Honsho: Karakura High's very own lesbian.

With her dark red hair and erotic excitement when near pretty girls, it wasn't that hard to give this one another once-over. Ichigo suddenly noticed something out of place with her, before his thoughts could venture further…

Chizuru was looking to her left, her chin resting on the knuckles of her left hand, her eyes slightly glazed over. Following her gaze, Ichigo's eyes fell on Orihime once more.

Ichigo internally huffed at Chizuru's rather-expected actions. _'Typical.'_

But something about the red-head suddenly caught his attention again. Something…purple. His eyes automatically zoomed in on the foreign colour, and Ichigo barely managed to avoid choking on his own spit as he found the source of the purple to be…Chizuru's pair of purple panties.

He almost suffered a gigantic nosebleed soon afterwards, though, as he realised that Chizuru's right hand was underneath her panties, rubbing her womanhood, which was also revealed to the orange-haired teen, along with a small tuft of dark-red hair…

Ichigo slowly lowered his down onto his desk, internally groaning at what he had just witnessed. Chizuru was pleasuring herself in class, and he had just been given an unasked-for genital lesson of sorts.

' _Great. Just great…'_ he internally tried dispersing his now-severely-radiating blush, his mind forever scarred at what he had just seen.

He sat like that for a good two minutes, before looking back up and, conscious of _not_ looking in Chizuru's direction, once again scanned through the other learners in the classroom, until his eyes fell on a girl with short black hair, sitting on the other side of the room.

Tatsuki Arisawa was by far Ichigo's oldest friend. They had met when he was about nine years old and had decided to start taking karate, where the black-haired girl beat the shit out of him over and over again, every time they sparred.

Karate was her passion, and she had been ranked second in her age group during the Japanese Nationals, even though she competed with a _broken arm_! She was also Orihime's self-appointed bodyguard against just about everyone, especially _Chizuru_ , who regularly got her ass kicked by the raven-haired girl.

Tatsuki also had a fair bit of Spiritual Pressure, but only enough to be able to see and stand in the presence of stronger spiritual beings. She had come face-to-face with Sosuke Aizen herself, and had managed to stay on her knees. So, in Ichigo's book, she was plenty strong.

A small smile appeared on the orange-haired teen's face as he looked at Tatsuki, who was staring at Ms. Ochi with the same bored expression that was probably plastered on his face as well.

 **[XXX]**

Tatsuki casually glanced towards her left at the rest of the class, and noticed that Ichigo was looking her way. She suddenly turned towards him, before flashing a toothy grin while she excitedly waved at him.

 **[XXX]**

Sweat-dropping at Tatsuki's antics, Ichigo gave a quick wave with an awkward grin plastered on his face.

Tatsuki had quickly turned back to the front of the class, and Ichigo let out yet _another_ sigh as he turned his attention back to his reflection in the window.

' _Great, just_ five _more periods…'_

 **[FIVE AND A HALF HOURS LATER…]**

*SIGH*

Ichigo looked at his wrist watch. _'Five minutes and twenty seconds 'till the end of the day…'_ he remarked to himself while looking back up to the teacher standing in front of the class.

It was the last period of the day on this fine Wednesday, and it was really just as boring as the first period with Ms. Ochi earlier today. Ichigo was certainly feeling the boredom right about now.

Math at Ms. Ochi was followed by English, and then Japanese, of course.

It was break time after that, during which Keigo, Mizuiro, Chad, Uryu and he had made their way up to the rooftop to eat. It was relatively silent and uneventful, up until Keigo started talking about some 'cool' arcade games he had played the previous night, which everyone else ignored anyway.

This had led to a whining-session from Keigo, which in turn resulted in Ichigo punching the brown-haired loudmouth square on the nose. All-in-all, it was a pretty ordinary break, which, sadly, had to end, and, before the orange-haired teen knew it, he was sitting in Biology class.

Tatsuki was the only notable person that also took Biology, as the rest of her friends- Along with Uryu -had Handicrafts, while Chad, Keigo and Mizuiro had woodwork. It's not as if he even wanted to take Biology.

His dad had forced him to take it. The silly old goat had somehow rationalised that when he one day retires, the clinic will be inherited by none other than Ichigo.

How his father had even come to that conclusion was beyond his comprehension. The old man never even allowed him to _help out_ in the clinic!

For instance, back when he had just acquired his Soul Reaper powers from Rukia; Chad had arrived at the clinic with a severe burn on his back. When the orange-haired teen had asked what he could do to help, his dad had blatantly ordered him to assume the fetal position and stay out of the way.

Heck, even Yuzu and Karin were allowed to help out around the clinic! How that worked, he just didn't know…

And while Ichigo didn't know everything that regarded becoming a doctor, he was pretty sure that one had to take Science, a subject he doesn't even take, as well as Biology in order to pursue a medical career, something which only confused him more.

But anyway, Biology was followed up by a subject that he actually enjoyed: P.E., or Physical Education. Well, he enjoyed half of it, that is. Apparently, P.E. wasn't just about physical activity anymore. It now also included theoretical work, mostly about personal dilemmas and situations such as stress, studying, _sex_.

Their class had P.E. twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mondays were dedicated to theory, while Wednesdays were reserved for outdoor activities, something the orange-haired teen thoroughly enjoyed.

Wednesdays usually consisted out of the class being divided up into two equal teams, before playing some-or-other sport against each other. What made this even more fun, was that they replaced the participating sport with a different every term.

This meant that they played four different sports a year. They had played soccer during the first term, a sport in which he was pretty good in. He and Karin were pretty similar when it came to soccer skills, so he had no problem besting the rest of his class.

And, seeing as it was now the second term of the year, Ms. Ochi- she was coincidently their P.E. teacher as well. -had fittingly chosen a new sport for them to participate in: Touch rugby.

Ichigo had to admit that he found this new sport interesting. Apparently it was pretty popular in other countries and was also starting to gain some following in Japan. So Ms. Ochi had accordingly suggested that they play some touch rugby. Actually, she just saw some muscled rugby players posing in some magazine, and had decided that they were 'sexy'. Man, some of these teachers were _weird_.

His team won, to put it mildly. Being a former Soul Reaper really did have its perks, especially regarding speed, strength and stamina.

The fun and games had also ended after a while, which meant that he was that much closer to the end of the day, with just _one_ more subject left.

Unfortunately, it was Economics, probably the most boring of his subjects. All they did in this class was listen to the teacher as he read out of the prescribed text book. They never did anything productive, so they just sat there, praying that their misery would soon come to an end. That was the situation Ichigo currently found himself in.

Looking back down at his watch, the orange-haired teen noticed that exactly forty seconds had passed since he last looked at the time.

' _Four minutes and thirty-nine seconds. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds. Four minutes and thirty-one seconds.'_ Ichigo started counting down in his head, hoping to hasten the period to its end. _'Four minutes and twenty-GAH!'_

He dropped his head in mid-sentence and lay it down on his open Economics book. He then closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, hoping to zone the teacher's voice completely out of his head.

"Thus equilibrium lies on the point where your quantity demanded meets your quantity supplied." Mr. Tokama's voice rang trough his head. It turns out that his voice was actually amplified if Ichigo closed his eyes, due to the orange-haired teen's other senses automatically sharpening when closing his eyes.

' _Okay, so maybe lying like this won't block his voice out after all…'_ Ichigo remarked to himself while lifting his head back up again. There was no point in lying down like that if it wasn't going to help at all. He might just get detention instead, now that he thought about it.

So he instead opted to twiddle his fingers together in an attempt to keep himself busy, until the distinct sound of a ringing bell emanated through the building.

School was finally done for the day.

The classroom was suddenly filled with the sound of books closing and bags being zipped up, as all of the students suddenly exploded out of their seats, and Ichigo was no exception to this. He had dumped his book into his bag and zipped it up in the blink of an eye, and was already barging his way over to the door, along with the rest of his class, as they made to get into the already-packed hallways and out of the school building.

Stepping into the seemingly never-ending horde of children, Ichigo quickly started making his way towards the doors of the building, determined to get out of here as soon as possible. Six hours of school per day was more than enough for him, and the orange-haired teen was sure as hell not planning on sticking around any longer than necessary.

' _Well, at least school's finally out.'_ Ichigo thought to himself as he trudged through the filled hallways, turning left or right every now-and-then while cautiously looking around him as to not bump into anyone by accident.

Ichigo walked home with Mizuiro and Keigo every afternoon, just as they walked together to school every morning. But the two of them had some computer subject in place of Economics. And the computer classroom was located deeper inside the school building, meaning that Keigo and Mizuiro had a longer walk to the exit, which equalled a more-peaceful walk home for Ichigo. Well, a part of it, anyway.

The two of them would eventually catch up to him, and then the peacefulness would disappear just as quickly, because Keigo blabbers…a lot. Most of the time, actually.

Ichigo let out a long, disappointed sigh at the thought of Keigo Asano. _'Maybe if I walk faster, I'll get home before they catc-'_

*SMACK!*

Before Ichigo could finish that thought, he felt something bump into him, causing whatever it was to bounce straight back off his muscled chest.

"Hm?" Ichigo exclaimed as looked around in front of him, trying to find whatever had just hit him.

"Ooooh…"

Hearing a groan from somewhere beneath him, Ichigo blinked and looked down, where he found the 'something'- or in this case the _'someone'_ –that had bumped into him: Michiru.

"Ouwie…" Michiru groaned, her eyes closed as she tentatively rubbed her forehead from where she sat on her butt on the floor.

Her books were scattered all around her, her bag had most likely been ripped open in the collision.

"Hey," Ichigo started, which caused Michiru to stop rubbing her head and suddenly snap her eyes open, which settled on the orange-haired teen's intimidating frame in front of her.

"Are you okay, Michiru?" Ichigo asked, a concerned frown on his face as he bent down to help her up.

The orange-haired boy's actions caused Michiru's eyes to widen, before she suddenly let out a small, frightened squeal, and got back up onto her feet by herself, conscious of her skirt.

"I-I'm alright! Thank you!" the little brunette quickly answered, before she got down onto her haunches, and hastily started picking her books up, practically throwing them back into her bag one-by-one.

"Here, let me help yo-" was all Ichigo could get out while picking up one of Michiru's books that was lying to his right, before the brunette suddenly stood up straight again.

"No! I-it's fine! I've got them all!" Michiru interrupted as she pointed to her bag with a nervous laugh. "B-bye!" she quickly turned on her heels, before practically sprinting down the hallway.

Ichigo watched as she disappeared in between the mass of other students, looked down at the book in his hand, and looked back up again, before his eyes widened in realization.

"Hey! Wait!" He held the book up in the air. "You forgot your…book…" he finished in a mumble and let his arm fall back to his side. It was too late, she was already out of earshot.

He looked down the hallway a few seconds longer, before he sighed in defeat and got down onto his haunches.

Ichigo zipped his bag open and put Michiru's book into the front of his bag. He got back up, and was about to zip his bag up again, before…

"III-CHIII-GOOO!"

' _Crap…'_ was the only word that went through Ichigo's head at that instant, as Keigo suddenly appeared in the air behind him, ready to pounce on the orange-haired teen.

With his hand still firmly on his bag's zipper, Ichigo quickly leaped into the air, delivered a brutal round-house kick to the side of Keigo's head, which sent the brown-haired boy crashing into a nearby wall, while the orange-haired teen landed on his feet in the same position he was before being attacked, and casually zipped his bag up.

"What's up, Mizuiro?" Ichigo greeted the black-haired teen, who had his face buried in his cell phone, as per usual.

Mizuiro briefly glanced up at Ichigo, before his eyes darted back down to his phone's screen. "Hey, Ichigo. Ready to go?"

Ichigo scanned the now-much-emptier hallway one last time for any sign of Michiru, before sighing in defeat. "Yeah," he slung his bag over his shoulder. "Let's go."

And with that said, Ichigo and Mizuiro started making their way towards the school doors again.

"What!?" Keigo suddenly appeared in front of his two friends, with tears streaming down his bruised face. "How can you guys just leave without even asking for my input? What if I still wanted to hang around here for a bit? How can you be so crue-MMMPH!"

"Would you just give it a rest." Ichigo said while retracting his fist from Keigo's face. "Everyone here knows that you can't wait to get out of this place. And why would I even _care_ about what you want? Now come on, let's go."

And so, the three of them started making their way out of the building once again, with Keigo slumping dejectedly behind Ichigo and Mizuiro. The orange-haired teen was determined to make this trip as short as possible, because of Keigo and, well…Keigo…

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 **Right, so there's the first chapter. Please review and tell me what you guys think so far!**

 **The next chapter will probably be out by tomorrow evening, South African time!**

 **Please don't forget to vote on the poll, and feel free to post a review on your way out.**

 **Cheers!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Right. Here's the second chapter, as promised.**

 **Thank you very much to everyone who reviewed,** _ **and**_ **everyone who voted on the Bleach-Elfen Lied poll!**

 **I want to remind everyone again that, if you haven't voted yet, please do. It's gonna take you like 45 seconds, and the input will be greatly appreciated.**

 **So it has occurred to me that a lot of you want to see this story spanned out and experience slow progress and development in the relationship between Ichigo and Michiru.**

 **Sadly, this is probably the penultimate chapter for the near-foreseeable future. I really don't have any time on my hands for writing at the moment. Everything's going in to making sure I don't fail any subjects.**

 **But anyway, here's the second chapter.**

 **Picks up right after the end of the last one.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **I don't own anything regarding Bleach, or its characters. It is owned by Tite Kubo, This is solely fan-made.**

 **Chapter Two: Homework and…dates?:**

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"Ichigo."

' _Man,'_ Ichigo thought to himself while walking, his eyes fixed on the pavement down in front of him. _'Am I glad school's over with…'_

"Ichigo."

' _So, what're my plans for the rest of the day?'_ the orange-haired teen asked himself, his eyes still fixated on the ground in front of him. _'Hmmm, let's see…Well, we did get some homework, but it's not a lot, so I should be done with it before 16:30. Maybe I can go kick some soccer ball with Karin before dinne-'_

"ICHIGO!"

"WHAT!?"

Snapping his head to the left, the orange-haired teen irritatedly glared at his brown-haired, loudmouth friend. "Why the hell are you yelling at me?"

"WHAAAAT?" Keigo quickly stuck his face almost right up against Ichigo's, overdramatic tears running down his face. "Do you mean to tell me that you haven't heard a word I've said before that?"

"Would you quit making a scene…" Ichigo scowled as he pushed Keigo's face away with his hand. "And why would I listen to you anyway?" he nonchalantly asked. "I haven't been paying attention to you since we left the school grounds."

"So you've just been ignoring me this whole time?" the brown-haired teen asked in disbelief.

"It's more like zoning you out." he corrected Keigo. "It's a handy skill to have, blocking out all the _unnecessary_ noise."

"But I've been telling this awesome story for the past twenty minutes!" Keigo stated, wildly swinging his arms around in the air to accentuate his point. "And you didn't hear _any_ of it?"

"Not a word…" was Ichigo's rather casual reply.

"WHAAAA-"

"Knock it off!" Ichigo yelled as he punched Keigo on the side of the face, sending the brown-haired teen crashing down onto the pavement.

Then, there was complete silence, until…

"Well, that's okay!" Keigo cheerfully announced as he suddenly reappeared in between Ichigo and Mizuiro, his arm draped over the black-haired boy's shoulders. "Because Mizuiro here was listening to everything I said! Isn't that right, old pal?"

"Hm?" Keigo's arm draped over his shoulders caused Mizuiro to look up from his cell phone. "Keigo? You're still here?"

"Huh?" Keigo frowned at Mizuiro in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, it's been pretty quiet for a while now," Mizuiro started. "So I thought we've passed your house already.

"Haven't you been listening to my story?" Keigo desperately asked. "Surely you listened to it, RIGHT!?"

"Story?" The black-haired boy frowned at his brown-haired friend. "Keigo, what're you talking about?"

"WHAAAAAAT!"

Ichigo, who had been silently watching Mizuiro and Keigo's exchange out of the corner of his eye, let out an exasperated sigh. It was the same story every single day. Keigo and Mizuiro usually had a longer route home, all the way to Naruki City, in fact.

But Keigo and his sister had recently moved into a new apartment, which was situated much closer to school. So, Keigo was dropped off first these days, which was a blessing in the disguise, at least.

And yet, every afternoon's walk home consisted out of the same routine: Keigo would tell a stupid story, Ichigo would ignore said story while Mizuiro was preoccupied with his cell phone, Keigo would overdramatically protest, and the orange-haired teen would then shut him up with force.

' _Every single day…'_ he let out another sigh, as the trio continued on their trek home…

"Well, this is my stop!" Keigo yelled back over his shoulder while running up the stairs of his apartment building. "See you tomorrow!"

"Goodbye, Keigo" Mizuiro bid his brown-haired friend goodbye, his face still buried in his cell phone's screen.

"Yeah, see ya." Ichigo bid Keigo farewell with a small wave of his hand, before resuming his walk home with Mizuiro.

It took the two of them another fifteen minutes before they reached the Kurosaki Clinic/Residence. Fifteen minutes that were spent in comfortable silence, save for a bit of small talk here-and-there.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Ichigo." Mizuiro bid his orange-haired friend farewell, before resuming his trek to the station, where he would catch a train to Naruki City.

"See ya, Mizuiro." he replied while opening and walking through the gate located to the side of the property, making sure to close it behind him.

His walk up to the side door of the building was calm, and it wasn't until he started turning its doorknob that he realised the repercussions of his current choice of action: _'Dad!'_

Stopping dead in his tracks, he made sure not to even breathe irregularly, as he quickly thought out a possible plan of action.

With the plan laid out in his head, he turned the doorknob the rest of the way, before casually pushing the door open. As soon as the door had swung open all the way, the orange-haired teen jumped to the left of the doorway, out of possible harm's reach.

After about forty seconds of hiding against the wall next to the entrance, Ichigo slowly poked his head out into the doorway, before hastily retracting it back behind the wall.

' _So far, so good.'_ The orange-haired teen let out a sigh of relief at seeing an empty hall on the other side of the doorway.

Taking in another deep breath, Ichigo proceeded into the house, making sure to close the door behind as quietly as possible.

The hallway laid out in front of him was still void of any other life forms. _'Okay, let's see…he's either in the kitchen, or the clinic…'_ the boy remarked to himself while tip-toeing through the house. _'If he's in the clinic, I'm in luck, because then I'll only see him around 18:00.'_

A small grin made its way onto Ichigo's face, but was quickly replaced by a frown. _'But he can also be in the kitchen on his lunch break. If that's the case, I've gotta make sure to attack him first.'_ He theorised with himself. _'That usually makes him back off. So, all I need to do is get Dad firs-'_

"Hey, Ichigo."

"GYAAAH!"

A loud ruckus ensued as he quickly lost his balance and fell flat on his face, sending a mini-tremor through the hallway.

Painfully looking up from where he was lying on the floor, the orange-haired boy laid eyes on, "Karin?"

Yes, it was indeed Karin, the oldest of his younger twin sisters- By a whole two minutes and forty-two seconds, mind you. –who was standing in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest and the usual nonchalant/uninterested expression plastered on her face.

"Ichigo," Karin bent down, coming face-to-face with her brother. "Why are you sneaking around in the house like some ninja?"

Ichigo stared at Karin in shock. It seems that he wasn't so stealthy as he thought he was. And on top of that, it seems that he was so wrapped up in his little avoid-dad-scheme, that he didn't even notice his black-haired sister approaching him. _'Man, this is so embarrassing…'_

"Well…uh…" he started. "…You see…" he tried again. "*SIGH*. Nevermind…" he finally gave up after Karin had raised her eyebrow in anticipation of his answer.

"Riiiiight…" was his little sister's simple reply as she watched her brother get back up onto his feet with a raised eyebrow.

"Anyway…" he quickly broke the awkward silence as he picked his schoolbag up, while looking down at his sister in feigned mild-interest. "Where are Yuzu and Dad?"

"Well, Yuzu's in the kitchen, busy with lunch. And Dad's not here." The black-haired girl stated, which caused Ichigo to raise his eyebrow, urging her to elaborate. "He said he had to deliver a few patients' documents to the hospital, or something like that."

He let out a sigh of relief as he dropped his guard. He was home-free.

"Alright then." He started dusting himself off with his free hand and flung his schoolbag back over his shoulder, before he started making his way to the kitchen. He stopped next to Karin, however, and, knowing his little sister well, gave her a little pat on the head, making sure to ruffle her black hair affectionately in the process.

Her big brother's actions caused Karin to let out a vicious growl, which Ichigo completely ignored as he started walking towards the kitchen again.

Karin hated being patted on the head…Actually, she hated most signs of affection which she was involved in. A smirk materialised on the orange-haired teen's face. _'Heh, a little payback for sneaking up on me.'_

"Hey, Yuzu. I'm home." he called out as he spotted little Yuzu while walking into the kitchen. She was standing at the counter, busy making sandwiches that was presumably for lunch.

"Hey, Ichigo!" Yuzu cheerfully greeted as she turned around to face her brother momentarily, before spinning back around to focus on the sandwiches again. "How was school?"

"Boring, as usual…" was Ichigo's mostly-uninterested reply.

He was about to turn around and head up to his room, when he noticed that Yuzu was still wearing her school uniform. Thinking back to just a few minutes ago, the orange-haired teen remembered that Karin wasn't wearing her school uniform, which meant that Yuzu had been working on lunch- Among other things too, most likely. –ever since the two girls had gotten home from school, and hasn't even had the chance to just relax a little.

Yuzu not only attended school during the day; she had also taken upon herself to do the housework of the Kurosaki residence, which included cooking, cleaning, and laundry, amongst others. To say the brown-haired girl had a hectic schedule, was a severe understatement.

And it was for that reason, that Ichigo suddenly felt very guilty. He generally doesn't give his sisters much attention. Call it unsettling to his appearance.

And he had also kept them out of the loop during his Soul Reaper days, which caused them to worry themselves sick about him, something he deeply regretted.

He let out a small sigh, before he walked backwards and settled himself against the frame of the doorway, dropping his bag and folding his arms over his chest in the process. "So, how was _your_ day?"

"Oh, it was pretty ordinary!" Yuzu replied as she looked at her brother over her shoulder. "But we did get a lot of homework, though. And it's pretty hard too." She added with an adorable little pout. "It's going to be another long night for me, I guess…"

"Well, if you need any help…" he casually offered.

"Ooh! That would be great, Ichigo!" Yuzu excitedly spun around on her heels to face her big brother. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem." Ichigo casually waved her off. "We can do it after lunch, then you won't have to sit with it tonight. We'll be done in no time."

"That's perfect. Thanks, Ichigo!" the brown-haired girl enthusiastically thanked Ichigo. It wasn't every day that her big brother offered to spend some time with her. So she was accepting his proposal with wide-open arms.

"Don't mention it, Yuzu." he said with another casual wave of his hand. "So, did anything interesting happen at school today?"

"Hmmm…" Yuzu hummed, giving the question some thought as she started cutting the sandwiches into triangular slices. "Nope. Nothing interesting. But we did play soccer in P.E. today." She turned to face her brother again. "Ugh, I hate soccer! I suck in it! Why can't I be good in soccer?! I mean, Karin is awesome in it! And I'm her twin sister! So, shouldn't that make me good in it too? I swear…"

Ichigo blocked Yuzu's rambling out right there. Man, his family was…unique. Yeah, let's go with unique. He instead kept himself busy by thinking about his own homework, along with his plans to go kick some ball with Karin afterwards.

"Hm?" the orange-haired teen turned his attention back to Yuzu, who was now swinging her hips from side-to-side while flailing her arms around, obviously in the middle of a mini-tantrum. "Uh, y-yeah…I'm sure it'll work out for you, Yuzu…" he awkwardly stated while watching his little sister start to calm down.

"Yeah, maybe I'm a late bloomer, so my athletic hormones haven't kicked in yet…" she trailed off, her index finger thoughtfully placed on her lips. She then suddenly gave her school shirt's collar a tug and peaked down into it, which earned her a gag of surprise from Ichigo.

"What the hell are you doing!?" the orange-haired teen yelled, pointing an accusing finger in his little sister's direction.

"Checking if I'm a late bloomer?" was Yuzu's simple reply as she glanced back up at her big brother, her collar still pulled to the side.

"Would you knock that off!" Ichigo yelled, a red hue slowly forming over the bridge of his nose. Where the hell did she learn _that_?

The brunette stared at Ichigo briefly, before she shrugged and let go of her collar. "Well anyway, lunch is ready!" she announced as she put a tray stacked full of sandwiches on the table.

"Great!" he exclaimed as he hastily started making his way over to the table, all previous embarrassment seemingly forgotten and replaced by hunger. "I'm starvi-GYAAH!"

A loud 'thud' echoed through the kitchen, as the orange-haired teen was suddenly kicked from behind and literally sent flying straight onto his usual chair at the table.

"What…the…hell…" he managed to wheeze out, his now-injured butt protesting at having to be sat on.

Karin suddenly walked up behind her older brother and, upon sitting down in the chair opposite his, glared at him. "Go on, try patting my head again!" she snarled, threateningly shaking her fist in Ichigo's direction. "Next time, I won't let you off the hook so easily!"

"Karin!" Yuzu chastised as she sat down to her sister's right, a disapproving look on her face. "That wasn't very nice!"

"Meh, he's had worse." Karin casually retorted, stacking a couple of sandwiches on her plate before knowingly glancing up at her brother. "Haven't you, Ichigo?"

Ichigo grumbled something incoherent under his breath as he bit down on a sandwich. He knew that she was talking about his past battles as a Soul Reaper, of course. After the battle with Aizen, he had decided that he would tell the people close to him everything, starting with his sisters.

While Yuzu was shocked, Karin was hardly fazed. His black-haired sister already knew, and her friendship with Toshiro only solidified her suspicions. It really was a huge burden off his shoulders, to be honest, and while none of them really talked about Soul Reapers or supernatural powers; they were at least aware of it.

"Well, it's still not very nice." Yuzu argued while nibbling on a sandwich of her own, her eyes closed and a slight frown gracing her features.

"Yeah-yeah…" Karin waved her sister off before taking another bite out of her sandwich.

And so, lunch time at the Kurosaki residence started, and lasted for another forty-five minutes after that, consisting out of small-talk for the most part, along with the steady decline of sandwiches on the table.

Ichigo then delivered on his promise and helped Yuzu with her homework, for which the little brunette was very grateful for.

The two of them finished up about fifteen minutes ago, and the orange-haired teen now found himself sitting at the table in his room, staring at the pile of books stacked on said table.

"Right," he exclaimed while poking the stack of books with the back of his pen. "My homework…"

The orange-haired teen let out a defeated sigh. Looking down at his wristwatch, he saw a digital '15:47' displayed on its screen.

Again, Ichigo sighed. He had planned on finishing his homework by no later than 16:30. But that was very much impossible now. It would take him _at least_ an hour and a half to get everything done. "I guess helping Yuzu with her homework took longer than I thought it would…" he mumbled while picking up the first book on the pile. "Well, it can't be helped…"

And so, the gruelling task that was homework started. He had most likely underestimated the amount of homework they received, as 17:30 came and went, with him still busy for quite a well after that.

"There," the orange-haired teen closed his last book, before glancing at his wristwatch, which now displayed a digitalized '18:03'. "Wow…" he leaned back in his chair. "That took a little longer than I thought it would as well…"

For the next few minutes, he simply sat back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head, giving his mind a little break. His plans to go kick some soccer ball with Karin was also cancelled, as he knew that his black-haired sister was probably lounging in front of the T.V. right about now, and nothing would get her away from that except dinner time.

"Hmmm…Well, I've still got an hour or so before dinner. So I'll probably just watch some T.V. too." He said while looking back down at the stack of books. "But first check to make sure I didn't miss anything."

The boy then started stacking the books on the other side of the table, ticking each one off one-by-one in his head. He suddenly stopped, however, as he picked up a rather foreign-looking book. Bringing it closer to his face, he asked, "What's this?"

Upon closer inspection, the orange-haired teen noticed the bold-written name on the front of the book.

"Ogawa, Michiru."

He frowned at the book. "How the heck did this get here…"

"Oh! Right!" his eyes suddenly widened, as the memory came back to him. "How could I forget about that?" he irritatedly asked himself. "She bumped into me, and dropped this…"

Gazing thoughtfully at the book in his hands, he decided to put it back into his schoolbag and just give it back to her tomorrow in class.

But then it occurred to him that maybe she had homework that required this book. He really didn't want her to get in trouble because of it.

So, he decided to give it back to her, now. But that idea was quickly shot down though, as he realised that he had absolutely no idea where Michiru lived.

So, he instead decided to sigh in defeat…until he noticed a small paragraph in the top right corner on the back of the book: An address.

"Alright!" the orange-haired teen momentarily celebrated with a fist-pump, before slapping himself on the forehead for not noticing the conveniently-placed address right away.

Jumping up from his seat, he quickly threw on a pair of jeans, shoes, and a black, zip-up hoody, before grabbing his wallet, cell phone, house keys and, most important of all, Michiru's book.

Almost jumping down the stairs, Ichigo opened the front door before yelling, "I'm going out for a while!"

"Ichigo, wait!" Yuzu suddenly darted out of the kitchen and appeared in the hallway. "What about dinner?"

Ichigo, who was already on the other side of the doorway, briefly glanced back over his shoulder at the brown-haired girl.

"I won't be long!" he yelled back, before hastily closing the door behind him.

"Ichigo!"

Yuzu's shouting dimmed out, as the orange-haired teen was already halfway down the street, en route to what he hoped was Michiru's house…

"Twenty-eight…twenty-eight…twenty-eight…" Ichigo mumbled over and over again, walking from one house to the next.

He was obviously in search of house number twenty-eight in this complex: The address that was on the back of Michiru's book. Boy, the girl stayed quite a distance away; he's been walking for almost thirty-five minutes!

"Twenty-four…twenty-six…Aha! Twenty-eight!" Ichigo came to a stop in front of a white, medium-sized, two-story building, a '28' neatly painted in black on the front of the house. There was also a roofed patio in front of the building, which offered some resistance against the elements.

Briskly making his way up the stairs, Ichigo stopped in front of the door, cleared his throat, and rung the doorbell.

The echoing sound of the bell ringing through the house was all that was heard for a few instances.

"I'm coming!" a clearly-feminine voice broke through the now-dying sounds of the doorbell, and Ichigo could hear rapid footsteps approaching him from the other side of the closed door.

The doorknob suddenly clicked and turned, before the door swung open to the inside.

"Hel-Ichigo?"

In the doorway stood little Michiru. Ichigo observed that she was wearing some tattered blue jeans, a white, sleeveless shirt, and an…apron?

Hearing his name, the orange-haired teen focussed his eyes back on the brunette's face, which was gazing back up at him with confused eyes.

"Hey there, Michiru." Ichigo greeted with a wave of his hand, sporting a friendly grin.

"Hello, Ichigo…" the she greeted back, curiously gazing up at Ichigo.

"You're probably wondering why I'm here…and how I even know where you live…" the orange-haired teen received a nod in response from the brunette. "Well, it turns out when we bumped into each other at school, you kinda forgot your book." He lifted said book up into the air. "I noticed your address on the back of the book, so I thought I'd just bring it back to you." He explained, holding the book out to Michiru. "So, here you go."

Tentatively taking the book from Ichigo; Michiru proceeded to study it momentarily. "Oh!" she clucked, looking back up at the orange-haired teen. "This is my Math book! I thought I forgot it in my locker! Luckily Ryo lent me hers, or else I would have gotten in trouble tomorrow!"

"Yeah," Ichigo nodded in agreement. "We did get a lot of homework there…"

"Hmhm…" Michiru hummed in agreement, while quickly paging through her book. "Well," she looked back up at Ichigo once more. "Thank you very much for bringing this to me, Ichigo." She gave a small bow. "I would've really panicked when I didn't find this in my locker tomorrow morning. You saved me a lot of trouble."

"Heh, it's no problem…" he let out a small chuckle, scratching the back of his head.

And then, there was silence…

"So, uh," the orange-haired teen spoke up again. "If you don't mind me asking…why are you wearing an apron?"

"Hm? Oh! You mean this?" the brunette gestured to the apron tied around her waist. "Well, my dad gets invited to a lot of corporate dinners, like tonight. They always get home pretty late, so I have to make myself some dinner." She explained, before a sheepish grin made its way onto her face. "But I totally lost track of the time today, so I haven't even done a thing in the kitchen yet! I was just about to get started on dinner, actually."

"Oooh." he exclaimed in understanding. "Well, how's about we go out and get something to eat instead?" he turned towards the street, and glanced over his shoulder at the brunette. "Come on."

Michiru stood frozen in place, gaping up at the boy in front of her.

"…uh…e-excuse me?"

Turning back around, he looked down at the girl with a raised eyebrow. "I said: Let's go get something to eat." He repeated. "It'll save you the trouble of cooking tonight?"

The girl blinked, not actually believing what she was hearing. Was Ichigo Kurosaki asking her out on a date?

A small blush formed over the bridge of her nose as she shyly looked down.

"I-I don't know…"

"Hm?" Ichigo frowned, tilting his head to the side in confusion. "Why not? Will your parents be mad if you leave the house?"

"Oh, no, no! They won't mind!" the brunette waved her hands in front of her. "As long as I get back home safely."

"So? What's the problem then? You haven't started on dinner yet, and your parents won't mind either." he stated. "I'll make sure that you get back home safely, and I'll even pay? Ya know, to say sorry for bumping into you today?" he offered. "Unless you really don't wanna go…"

"No!" Michiru blurted out a little louder than she intended. A small blush made its way onto her face, and she looked down at her bare feet in embarrassment.

"I-I mean it would be nice to get some dinner…" the brunette looked back up at him, a small smile on her face. "Thank you…"

"Good." he smiled back at the brown-haired girl. "Well, let's go."

Quickly giving herself an once-over, Michiru looked back up at the boy. "Uhm…give me five minutes." The brown-haired girl didn't have her wallet or cell phone with her, she wasn't wearing any shoes, and she was wearing an _apron_. Definitely not suitable. "I-Is that okay?"

"Sure. No problem." Ichigo reassured her with a wave of his hand. "I'll just wait out here."

"'Kay. I'll be right back!" Michiru turned on her heels and darted back into the house, closing the door behind her.

He leaned back against the wall to the left of the door and waited in silence…until it occurred to him that he and Michiru were going out for dinner, which effectively meant that he was taking her out on a d-date!

A blush slowly started forming over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. _'It's not a date!'_ he mentally screamed at himself, shaking his head to remove the intrusive thought.

' _I'm just saving her some trouble, is all. And saying sorry for kind of walking over her.'_ He reassured himself. _'And that just happens to include me having dinner with her. Wait._ Dinner _!'_

And hey, contrary to outward appearances, he's a nice guy. Always helping out where needed.

Quickly glancing down at his watch, he saw that it was displaying a digital '18:46'.

"Crap…" he muttered, his palm slamming into his forehead. "Dad's gonna flip out…"

Dinner at the Kurosaki residence was '19:00' sharp, and Kami have mercy on your soul if you walked in even a _second_ later.

And Ichigo wasn't just going to be late for dinner. He was going to _miss_ dinner, something that was most-definitely going to earn him a sparring session with the goat-chinned idiot.

Sighing in aggravation, the orange-haired teen took his cell phone out, slid it open, and pushed a few buttons, before bringing it up to his ear.

The phone rang for a few moments, before sound could suddenly be heard on the other side.

"Hello?"

A rather dull, bored-sounding voice had answered the phone.

He took a moment to slap his forehead with the open palm of his hand. Leave it to Karin to answer the phone so rudely.

"Hey, Karin. It's me."

"Ichigo?" His younger sister's voice responded from the other side. "Where the heck are you? It's almost dinner time, and you know how Yuzu gets…"

The two siblings shared an involuntary shiver at the mention of Yuzu, and missing dinner. The brunette was adorable…most of the time. But never miss dinner without a reason, though… _never_.

"Yeah…uh, about that…" the orange-haired teen started, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably. "Could you just tell Dad and Yuzu I won't make it for dinner tonight. Something came up that I have to take care of…"

A resounding 'WHAT!?' suddenly shrieked through the speaker of the cell phone, causing him to jerk the device away from his poor ear. "Yeah, like said; something came up that requires my attention." He repeated, holding the phone a safe distance away from his face. "Tell Yuzu that I'm sorry for missing dinner and not to worry about me. I'll just get something to eat here. Don't worry, I'll be back before '21:30'!"

"Hey wait!" Karin yelled from the other end. "I'm not telling Yuzu that you're missing dinner! That's suicide!"

"Bye, Karin! I'll see you later!" Ichigo over-politely yelled back.

"Wait! Ichigo! Don't you dare hang up! You hear me!? Ichigo! Ichig-*BEEP*"

' _Man, I'm gonna get it tonight…'_ he sighed and closed his eyes for a few moments, not noticing that Michiru had come back outside, in the meantime.

It wasn't until he heard the door making a clicking noise as it was closed, that the orange-haired teen noticed the petite brunette standing next to him, busy locking the door.

Instead of the tattered blue jeans, sleeveless shirt and apron she had on a few minutes ago; Michiru now wore a white hoody with pink patterns and hearts, plain black leggings with black, open-toed shoes, and a plain black skirt that came down to mid-thigh, effectively protecting some of her modesty that the leggings did not.

All-in-all, Ichigo thought that Michiru looked…very pretty, actually.

"Ichigo…" he heard said girl timidly call out.

"Yeah?" the orange-haired teen focussed on Michiru again.

"I-I said I'm ready to go…" the little brunette softly informed him, nervously tugging at the bottom of her skirt.

Ichigo had been staring at her, and, in all honesty, it made her feel _very_ self-conscious all of a sudden.

"Oh…" was the boy's simple reply. "Sorry, sorry." He shook his head. "It's just, you look so…pretty…"

Damn it! He knew he was staring at her again, but he just couldn't help it. He really had never noticed that Michiru was actually a very pretty girl, and the pink hoody contrasted nicely to her slightly-tanned skin. Geez. Since when did he start taking such notice of detail?

A blush quickly made its way onto Michiru's face, and she looked down, her eyes shyly fixed on her toes, a small smile appearing on her face. "T-Thank you…"

A small blush also appeared over Ichigo's cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Clearing his throat, the orange-haired teen turned and started walking down the stairs. "Well, come on. Let's go."

He stopped briefly at the bottom of the stairs, until Michiru caught up, before he started leading them down the street a little slower than usual. She was quite a bit shorter than him, so he didn't want to walk out of her by accident.

The two of them walked in silence for the next few minutes, with Ichigo occasionally turning left or right, leading them to Kami-knows-where.

"So," the orange-haired teen turned his head slightly in Michiru's direction. "You like ramen?"

He had completely forgotten to ask what kind of food the brown-haired girl liked. He figured that they could go to this new noodle restaurant a few blocks away, but if she didn't like ramen, they would have to go someplace else.

"Oh," Michiru looked back up at him, smiling brightly. "I love ramen!"

Ichigo breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Good, 'cause I thought that we could go to that noodle restaurant nearby. Is that okay?"

"Hmmm…" Michiru explained, putting her finger to her lips in thought. "Ooooh, _that_ restaurant! I've walked by it a few times, but I've never eaten there. I hear their food is great, though!"

He grinned in anticipation.

"Good, I can't wait to taste it."

"Hmhm." The brunette hummed in agreement.

The two teens walked the rest of the way in silence, and eventually stopped in front of a dark-brown, rather traditional-looking building. The words 'Noodle Woodle Moodle!' were written on the front of the building in a much lighter shade of brown, with 'Delicious hand-made noodle dishes!' as a subtitle underneath.

They were quickly helped by one of the waiters, who led them into the restaurant and offered them a seat at one of the tables in the far-left of the dining section, before giving each of them a menu and finally walking off, informing them that he would be back shortly to take their order.

While Michiru was scanning through her menu; Ichigo glanced around at their surroundings.

The inside of the restaurant also had a traditional Japanese feel to it. There were three rows of tables with accompanying benches evenly placed throughout the front section of the building. There were two doors on the right-hand side of the building, leading to the bathrooms for men and women respectively. And finally, the kitchen, which was located at the back of the restaurant, filling the rest of the building with various delicious food fragrances.

"Mmmm…everything looks so good…" Michiru thought out loud, looking over the different kinds of noodle dishes and their respective preview pictures.

Ichigo looked over towards the brunette briefly, before he too started scanning through the menu.

The waiter returned about a minute later, and the two teenagers quickly placed their respective orders. Michiru had decided to have Miso ramen with chicken and vegetables and a strawberry milkshake, while Ichigo ordered Shuyo ramen with pork, green onions and nori, along with an orange soda. The waiter then gave a small bow and walked to the kitchen area to hand their orders to the cook.

The two teens had started conversing in the meantime, mostly about school and homework, though. They weren't really friends, so they barely knew anything about the other one's life.

By the time their drinks arrived, the topic had changed to Michiru's parents, specifically her dad's job as a corporate employee in central Tokyo, which caused the brunette to see very little of him during the week.

This in turn led to discussing Ichigo's dad's career as a medical doctor, and how he always goofed around to keep his 'baby girls' smiling.

And then, about a quarter of the way into their bowls of ramen, the brunette suddenly asked about Soul Reapers. Ichigo had almost spit his orange soda right into Michiru's bowl, but had luckily gotten a hold over himself in time.

He definitely wasn't expecting _that_ to spring up. Although, come to think of it, he did remember hearing from Keigo about Michiru being present in the battle against Aizen. Unconscious, but present. So he figured that Tatsuki or someone had probably talked about everything that happened, and the brunette only wanted to know a bit more of the afterlife.

So, he told her. About everything. From Rukia 'giving' him her powers, right up until Aizen's imprisonment, and the loss of the orange-haired teen's Soul Reaper powers.

He really had no idea as to why he was so _talkative_ about it. Maybe he just needed to _talk_ about everything for a change, with someone who has no experience whatsoever with the paranormally-unexplained and supernatural. Just a normal human being, living a normal, un-spirited life.

Someone like Michiru.

"So," the brunette slurped up the last of her milkshake and looked up at Ichigo. "So, you gave your powers up to defeat that guy? To save us all?"

"Yep." Was Ichigo's simple reply.

They had finished eating a while ago, and he was just waiting for her to finish her milkshake.

"Wow…" the brunette stared at her empty glass in thought.

Ichigo Kurosaki, the kid who seemed to be irritated by almost everyone, saved the world, knowing full well what the consequences would be, yet still gave it all up.

"Heh." The orange-haired teen scratched the back of his head in modesty. "Well, at least it's over, and I doubt the Soul Society would let something like that ever happen again. So, I think everyone's gonna be safe from here on out."

Michiru smiled slightly before looking back up at the boy. "Do you…do you miss being a Soul Reaper…?"

His eyes widened for a second, before softening quite a bit.

"I do sometimes…"

Michiru looked on as the orange-haired teen lowered his eyes to the table between them, a sad smile appearing on his face.

"When Uryu and the others have to go fight some rogue Hollow, I sometimes wish I still had my powers, so I could be right there with them, protecting them. Ever since my Mom died when I was little, I always thought that it was my job to protect people. My sisters, my friends. Even more so when I found out she was killed by a Hollow…"

Michiru let out a small gasp. She knew his mother had passed away a long time ago, but not that she was killed by a monster. That must be why he was so desperate to protect everyone from that man. He probably couldn't stand seeing another person close to him die. _'Oh, Ichigo…'_

"But, I've accepted everything that's happened. There's no use living backwards. And besides," the orange-haired teen's smile changed into a happier one. "I'm finally normal. No more seeing random ghosts. The thing I have to worry about the most now is passing tenth grade, like everyone else."

Michiru nodded, a small smile forming on her face. He seemed genuinely happy with being normal.

"Thank you very much. We hope to see you again." The waiter walked up to their table, putting down a small booklet with their bill inside, on the table, before walking off again.

Opening the booklet, Ichigo checked the amount owing and took out his wallet. He took out a few notes and some coins and put it inside the booklet.

"Oh, wait." Michiru exclaimed from the other end, already taking out some monetary notes of her own. "You almost forgot to put my share with."

He chuckled while closing the booklet. "You don't really have a share, Michiru. I told you that I'd pay, remember?"

"B-But I-"

"Nope." he shook his head as he got up onto his feet. "Forget it. I'm paying."

"Are you sure?" the brunette asked, also standing up.

"Yep." The orange-haired teen ushered Michiru ahead of him towards the front door, making sure to hand the booklet over to their waiter in passing by him.

A small smile spread over the brunette's face as the two of them walked out of the restaurant into the night.

Putting the money back into her hoody's pocket, Michiru looked over to the boy walking next to her out of the corner of her eye. "T-Thank you…"

He glanced back at her, only offering her a small smile in return, as he tucked his hands into his jacket's empty pockets for some extra warmth.

The rest of their walk to Michiru's house passed relatively fast, and, before the two of them knew it, they were standing in front of the brunette's house once more.

"Well," the orange-haired teen turned to face Michiru. "Here you are. Back home safely, just like I promised."

"Hehe…" A soft chuckle came from the brunette, who was twiddling her fingers together as she looked right back at Ichigo.

Suddenly taking a step towards him, Michiru timidly wrapped her left arm around Ichigo's right, while her right hand softly took hold of his.

"T-Thank you for taking me out to dinner…" the brunette hugged his arm softly. "It was very nice."

She let go, and briskly walked up the stairs.

It was only after opening the front door that Michiru turned back to face the orange-haired teen. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she waved at him, a big smile on her face, before stepping inside, closing the door behind her as she did.

Ichigo dumbly stared at the closed door for a few seconds longer after it closed, before a smile slowly started making its way onto his face as well.

Putting his hands back in his jacket's pockets, the orange-haired teen started making his way home, only to suddenly stop a few feet later, feeling something foreign in his right jacket pocket.

"What's this?"

Taking whatever it was out of his pocket, he held it up to his face to get a better view under the darkened sky.

"Money?"

The orange-haired teen frowned at the crumpled up notes of cash. Where the heck did this come from? It definitely wasn't in there five minutes ago. Wait a minute…

He turned around, staring straight at Michiru's house.

It was hers. She probably slipped it into his pocket when she was hugging his arm just now.

He kept staring at the house a second longer, before a smile made its way onto his face.

' _Oh well…'_ he turned back around and started walking home again, making sure to pocket Michiru's money safely in his jeans' pocket. _'I'll just give it back to her tomorrow anyway…'_

 **[XXX]**

As soon as Michiru closed the door behind her, she quickly moved to the front window to peek out at Ichigo. There was no way that she _wasn't_ going to pay the boy back, so she just snuck some money into his pocket. She was definitely no mooch.

Her plan had worked: Hug his arm; plant the stash…and pray he won't notice it until he got home.

The brunette watched Ichigo start walking down the street.

"Uh-oh…"

He had stopped, taken the money out of his pocket, and now he was turning back around!

Darn it. He was going to give her money back.

She puffed her cheeks out in annoyance, but noticed that the orange-haired teen had turned around and started walking away again in the meantime.

The brunette let out a small sigh of relief, before a big smile appeared on her face.

Ichigo really wasn't as bad as she thought. She was always so scared and careful around him, because he never ever smiled, and always looked irritated by almost everything and everyone.

But, after spending most of the early evening with him, the brunette's opinion of the orange-haired boy had quickly taken a 180 degree turn. He didn't glare at her once, and never showed any signs of irritation at all. In fact, she could honestly say that he was nicer than most of the other 'nice' boys at school.

She slowly made her way up to her room on the second floor, the smile on her face not faltering the slightest bit, happy that she made a new friend…

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 **Yeah yeah. The story's probably moving along faster than many of you would want. But as I said, I really don't have time on my hands, and I thus planned it out accordingly.**

 **Note that a lot of time will be covered by means of time skips and such.**

 **Also, I'm really trying to include the twins in a few scenes during this story, as they don't really get a lot of screen time in canon or even Fanfiction.**

 **Anyway, don't forget to review. I would greatly appreciate it.**

 **And forget to vote on the poll please!**

 **Thanks.**

 **Cheers.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so here's the final chapter of this story. At least for the foreseeable future that is.**

 **Jeez, what's been going on with 's stats thingy? I like seeing how many people viewed my stories. So sad.**

 **Anyway thank you for all the reviews of the previous chapter.**

 **And thank you to everyone who has voted on the poll on my profile page!**

 **Those of you that haven't voted yet, don't forget to! It's gonna take you like 45 seconds!**

 **Right, so this chapter contains three scenes which are spanned over a few weeks, just in case anyone gets confused. I've also decided to change the rating to M because of that Chizuru scene in Chapter 1, just to be safe!**

 **Anyways, enjoy.**

 **I don't own anything regarding Bleach, or its characters. It is owned by Tite Kubo, This is solely fan-made.**

 **Chapter Three: Blossoming Feelings:**

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"IIICHIIIGO-GAK!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Ichigo removed his fist from Keigo's face, the brown-haired boy falling flat on the ground in a heap.

"It's break time…"

The orange-haired teen made his way to the classroom's door, intent on leaving his loudmouth friend right there on the ground. But fate, unfortunately, had other ideas.

"Correcto!"

Keigo suddenly jumped up next to Ichigo, his arm slung over the orange-haired boy's shoulders. "So, what do you say we make our way up there, big guy?"

Ichigo shrugged the boy's arm off of him by nonchalantly shoving Keigo away in the face. "First of all: Stop touching me. And second, where do you think I'm headed, idiot?"

It was true. He _was_ heading to the roof, their usual spot. He had of course hoped that it would be a quiet trip, undertaken in solitude. But alas, one Keigo Asano had quickly sniffed him out in the now-empty Economics class.

So now Ichigo found himself walking towards the stairs alongside the brown-haired boy, whose mouth just seemed to open and close never-endingly.

Approaching the stairs leading to the school rooftop, the talking hadn't ceased at all. It was one big, continuous chatter session.

"So he said: 'Yo, dude. Get off that game. It's my turn now!'" Keigo mimicked in a low voice. "So I said: 'No way, dude! I'm still busy here!' But then he said: 'Yo, dude. Get off that game before I _make_ you.' So I said: 'What I meant was I'm completely done with this here machine, so please feel free to use it!'-"

"Keigo."

"Yeah?"

Stopping momentarily to let the brown-haired boy pass him, Ichigo proceeded to kick Keigo from behind, sending the loudmouthed boy flying through the air, opening the door in the process, and finally landing on the rooftop in a heap.

The orange-haired teen casually walked past Keigo, only pausing for a brief moment to look at the brown-haired teen out of the corner of his eye, before walking on.

"You talk too much…"

Ichigo made his way over to the railing, where Chad, Mizuiro and Uryu were already seated.

"Yo." The orange-haired teen greeted his other friends, sitting down to Chad's right.

"Hm."

"Hey, Ichigo."

When Uryu's turn to greet Ichigo came, there was silence. So, the orange-haired teen looked over to the Quincy, who in turn was staring straight back at him.

"…What?"

The raven-haired teen pushed his glasses up higher on his nose before speaking.

"Your uniform is untidy."

Ichigo scoffed at the glasses-wearing boy while rummaging through his bag. "Shut up."

"I will not shut up!" Uryu yelled back. "As the President of The Student Representative Council, it is my job to ensure that our uniform is worn with pride, dignity, and an overall sense of _neatness_!"

The raven-haired boy had subconsciously raised his voice higher with each value he listed, along with getting up onto his feet somewhere through his rant.

He was now standing up straight, his hand proudly placed over his heart, glaring down at the sitting Ichigo.

"…Uh, you're taking this way too personally…" the orange-haired teen remarked. "And besides, my uniform is just fine. If anything, you should be shouting at Keigo over there…"

Uryu glanced over to where Keigo was still lying on the ground, his limbs twitching every now-and-then. Ichigo did have a point. The brown-haired boy looked way more untidy. But he merely pointed Ichigo's uniform out as a means to irk the orange-haired boy. Oh, how he loved to do that.

So, the raven-haired teen sat down again, as all of them started taking out their respective meals. Keigo quickly crawled over to their little group as well, and soon everyone was eating in silence.

The door heading back down suddenly opened again, and a group of six girls appeared through it a second later.

Orihime, Tatsuki, Chizuru, Ryo, Michiru and Mahana were all walking in a little group, talking about something or another.

The girls usually spent their break under an old tree in the corner of the school grounds. But some days-like today-they would alternate and have their break on the roof top instead. In the past, the two groups rarely blended, though, save for the occasional greeting or question. But these days it was a rare occurrence if the boys and girls _didn't_ interact. They talked about all kinds of, well, mostly crap. From the newest movies, to games and even the occasional supernatural manga and anime series.

Ichigo took a large bite out of his sandwich, savouring its deliciousness while staring at his shoes.

A shadow suddenly appeared in front of his crossed legs, effectively blocking his view, along with the sun's rays from reaching him.

Looking up, the orange-haired teen laid eyes on Michiru, who was looking back down at him with a bright smile on her face.

"Hello, Ichigo!" she beamed.

Ichigo, who was still chewing on his sandwich, quickly swallowed, before smiling back at the brunette in front of him. "Hey there, Michiru."

It has been about four and a half weeks since their informal little 'date', and the little brunette rarely- if ever -shied away when he was in the area these days. On the contrary, she couldn't be any nicer to him.

The girls spent their break on the roof a lot more recently, and the two of them regularly engaged in conversation, be it about school work or just idle chit-chat amongst the rest of their friends.

He had really warmed up to the petite girl over these last few weeks, and vice versa. He really found her to be quite interesting, after getting to know her a little better. She was very, well, girly: She liked teddy bears, soppy romance movies, teenage boy bands, pink stuff. Everything 'girly'.

And the money Michiru slipped into Ichigo's pocket, you ask?

Well, it was now safely tucked away in the back of the orange-haired teen's closet, sadly.

He tried to give it back to her. Of course he did. The very next day after their 'not-date', actually.

He had waited until the last period before break and had darted over to her desk, where the brunette was calmly packing her books away.

He had brought up the fact that he had treated her, and was fully intent on giving her money back to her.

But before Ichigo had even taken said money out of his pants' pocket, the little brunette had thrown a sort of huge tantrum, in which she proclaimed that they _both_ had agreed to go get something to eat, thus she had to contribute her part of the bill.

Of course, the orange-haired teen had immediately protested, but then Michiru did the unthinkable…

She fixed him with a defiant glare, crossed her arms, and then puffed her cheeks out in annoyance.

Ichigo knew he should've given up right there. After years of being exposed to Yuzu's adorable little pouty face, there was simply no way that he could win any battle involving puffed-up cheeks. Prolonged exposure to his little sister's deadly weapon had wiped out most of the resistance he might have had.

He had persevered though, insisting that she take her money back.

But the brown-haired girl had none of it. She had simply sat back down in her chair and took her food out.

Most of the two teens' break time that day was spent in the class; with Ichigo begging Michiru to please just take her money back, while said brunette simply continued glaring at the boy with puffed-up cheeks, occasionally taking a bite out of her sandwich…only to puff her cheeks up again after swallowing.

By the time she was halfway through the last of her two slices, he had finally sighed in defeat, putting the money back into his pocket.

The brown-haired girl had almost instantly perked up again, giving him a bright smile and a thumbs-up, along with a "Good boy!" to top it off.

So he was literally forced against his will to keep Michiru's money. He wouldn't ever spend it, of course.

He stood by his reasoning, in his eyes, _he_ paid for that dinner. So, he instead tucked Michiru's money away, safely in the back of his closet.

The orange-haired teen would save her money _for_ her, even if she wasn't aware of it and would in all likelihood pout at him again until he used the freaking money!

But, what she didn't know, wouldn't hurt her, right? He would get her to take that money back eventually. That's a guarantee…he hoped…

"Heyyyy!" a voice whined to his right, snapping Ichigo out of his thoughts.

It was Keigo, of course. No surprise there.

"Hm?" Michiru turned her head towards the brown-haired boy as well.

"You greeted everyone except me!" the brown-haired loudmouth ranted, pointing an accusing finger in the petite brunette's direction.

"I greeted you this morning in History class!" Michiru defended herself. "But you were busy with nonsense, like always. So you didn't notice! And besides," the brunette crossed her arms over her school sweater, sceptically raising her eyebrow in Keigo's direction. "You get all weird and hyperactive when people greet you. So I'm actually glad you were so busy!"

Ichigo couldn't stop the snort that escaped his throat, along with the smirk forming on his lips. Michiru didn't mince her words when dealing with Keigo, that's for sure.

"Geez!" Keigo slumped over. "That's so mean!"

"It's the truth." Michiru sniffed, casually giving her fingernails an once-over.

Keigo let out a depressed whine, before his shoulders suddenly straightened up again. "Ichigo! Are you just gonna sit there and laugh at a time like this? You should be defending your old pal Keigo!"

"Pffft…" he gave the brown-haired boy an uninterested look. "Why would I ever defend _you_? And what Michiru said is true, anyway. You're way too loud when you get excited…"

"Wh-what?"

Great. Keigo was at it again. "So you're taking _Michiru's_ side over _mine_?"

"Every time…" the orange-haired teen casually replied before taking another bite of his delicious, Yuzu-made sandwich.

Keigo's mouth opened and closed rapidly a few times, but no sound came out, seemingly shocked into silence.

"HA!" Michiru triumphantly grinned at the brown-haired boy, showing a 'V' for victory in Keigo's direction with her fingers, before turning towards Ichigo and giving him a bright, thankful smile.

She then- conscious of her school skirt -carefully sat down to the orange-haired teen's left, halfway in between him and Ryo, and proceeded to take out her own food.

Things returned to normal after that, with eating and the occasional talking in the enlarged group the only interesting events that occurred for the remainder of break time.

And, before any of them knew it, break time was over, and it was time to get back to their respective classes for the second half of school for the day.

As if Ichigo wasn't bored enough _already_ …

 **[THREE HOURS LATER…]**

"Alright," Mr. Takeda closed his book, turning to face the class full of students as he checked the time on his watch. "I'm stopping there for the day, as the bell will ring any second now."

Ichigo immediately dropped his head down on his open Biology book. Kami, he was so _bored_.

*RIIING!*

The orange-haired teen's head immediately shot back up at the sound of the school bell ringing, as the entire classes started throwing their textbooks and pencils into their respective bags, intent on getting out of this Kami-forsaken building.

"Don't forget to pre-read from page 328 to 340 for Monday!" Mr. Takeda yelled, but was completely ignored as most of the students darted towards the door, only to end up in the increasing hoard of wrestling teenagers.

Ichigo, on the other hand, calmly packed his belongings away in his bag. It was pointless to sprint towards the door, only to be stopped dead in your tracks on the other side by the rest of the school also charging towards the exit.

"Hey, Ichigo!"

He was halfway out of his seat when he heard someone calling him. Looking up, Ichigo locked eyes with Tatsuki, who was standing at the door, looking back at him.

The raven-haired girl gave him a small wave, a smirk on her face. "Have a nice weekend. I'll see ya on Monday!"

The orange-haired boy smirked back. "Thanks. You too, Tatsuki."

The raven-haired teen nodded in acknowledgment, before she too disappeared through the door and into the mass of students on the other side.

It wasn't long before Ichigo found himself flowing with the masses through the school halls as well, his bag flung lazily over his shoulder.

It's amazing how much of a difference a minute could make. Had he been walking through this very hallway about sixty seconds ago; he would have been squashed together a lot closer than he minded with some other random Karakura High pupil.

It was still pretty crowded at the moment, but not nearly enough for someone to invade his little personal bubble by accident.

On top of that, he was almost-certain that he had managed to get himself out of a walk home with Keigo and Mizuiro.

Oh yeah, a minute made a _huge_ difference.

He let out a sigh as he stepped out into the chilly afternoon air, zipping his school jacket up just a bit more.

Fall was definitely approaching fast. It was getting cooler by the day, and the rainy season was most certainly close-by as well.

The orange-haired teen had almost made it to the front gates of the school, when he suddenly heard a loud, feminine screech, followed by laughing from what sounded like a couple of boys.

"What the hell…" he mumbled, quickly changing direction towards the source of the ruckus.

The school grounds in front of him quickly became crowded, as a good handful of students were standing in a semi circle, obviously playing spectators to something.

Wriggling through in between the students, he quickly got to the front of the crowd, only to immediately feel his blood start to boil at what he saw…

There, sitting on the ground, was Michiru.

Her school sweater's sleeves were torn up in various places, revealing very nasty gashes on her arms that accompanied those on her unprotected legs. A large part of the right-hand side of her school skirt was also shredded, exposing a fair portion of her pink panties, along with a rather large, nasty-looking gash on the outside of her right thigh.

She fell.

Or so he thought, but his scepticism rose when he caught sight of two senior boys snickering off to the side, one of them holding a long piece of wire.

Glancing back to Michiru, the orange-haired teen noticed two thin, identical cuts right above her ankles.

He gritted his teeth, anger starting to cloud his vision as his fists bawled of their own accord.

She didn't fall.

She was _tripped_.

By those two jackasses.

And no one even bothered to help her! He didn't see any of their friends in the crowd, so they weren't there.

Those that _were_ part of the crowd only stood there! Murmuring amongst each other and snickering silently at Michiru's expense.

He stepped forward and dropped his bag on the ground to Michiru's left, before he walked up towards the two senior students, his features calm, but, on the inside, he was seething with anger, if the minute shaking of his clenched fists was anything to go by.

"Haha!" one of the two final years laughed extravagantly, his hands proudly placed on his hips, the piece of wire dangling from his right hand. "I told ya it'd work! We just had to find a good place to set the wire!"

The other one snickered. "Yeah. Good call. That dumb girl never even saw it comin'! Walked right into it!"

"Pfft, totally! This is probably our best prank eve-!"

Before the senior could even finish; Ichigo's right hand had shot out, roughly shoving the older boy in the chest and sending him skidding along the ground.

The orange-haired teen still looked completely calm as he lowered his arm again, save for the silent fury burning in his eyes. "You fucking assholes…"

The senior that Ichigo shoved was lying on the ground where he had come to a stop a few feet back, clutching his chest in silent agony as he rolled about in a futile effort to alleviate the pain.

Huh. Guess he had a lot more strength than he thought. Oh well, he didn't really give a damn right now.

The other senior glared at Ichigo half-heartedly, visibly shocked by the little attack on his comrade. "W-what the hell's your problem, Kurosaki?"

The orange-haired teen continued glaring at them with impassiveness, even as the other senior got back up and gingerly made his way towards his pal.

"Come on, Takaji." The two of them stalked towards him. "Let's teach this fucker a lesson!"

Then they attacked, with each of them throwing their own respective punch towards Ichigo's face.

"Tch." The orange-haired teen clicked his tongue at how pitifully slow their punches were.

Gracefully ducking under the two seniors' respective fists, his right hand shot out, hell-bent on hitting the so-far-uninjured one of the duo straight on the nose.

But the two of them were suddenly shoved backwards, his fist connecting with nothing but thin air as a result.

Looking to his right; Ichigo noticed Uryu standing there, his arms stretched out in front of him. This was no doubt his doing.

The raven-haired boy dropped his arms back down just as the orange-haired teen stood up straight again.

"Step back, Ichigo." Uryu pushed his glasses higher up on his nose. "There is no need for you to get involved in this, as it has nothing to do with you."

Ichigo frowned at the raven-haired boy in irritation. Was he stupid or something? "The hell I'll step bac-"

"Stay out of it." Uryu firmly ordered. "These two," he motioned towards the two seniors lying on the ground in a heap. "Will be punished accordingly by the Student Representative Council and the school Principal. There is no need for _you_ to be suspended as well."

Even though he had in all likelihood just arrived on the scene; the bastard had probably already deduced what had transpired. Smart-ass.

The raven-haired Quincy walked up to the two boys, and grabbed each one by the back of their respective collars. Looking back at a dumbfounded Ichigo, he narrowed his eyes slightly. "Instead of just standing there being useless; why don't you check up on Michiru?"

And with that said, Uryu walked away, dragging the two seniors after him, most likely to go pay a visit to the Principal's office.

He blinked as Uryu disappeared around the corner of the school building, the two seniors in tow, and then promptly turned around and started making his way over to where Michiru was still sitting on the ground, staring up at him in slight awe.

Her arms and legs were stinging so bad, and she was wondering why no one was even _trying_ to help her up. But she didn't care at all about any of those things right now.

Because never has anyone _ever_ stood up for her like Ichigo just did. Never.

Coming to a stop in front of the brunette; Ichigo got down onto one knee, coming face-to-face with her. "Hey," his voice came out soft and gentle. "You okay?"

Ichigo's voice snapped her out of her daze, and, as she blinked at him, the reality of the situation set in once again:

Her arms and legs were hurting, but most of the pain coming from all the little cuts were blocked out by the burning pain on the outside of her right leg. And on top of that; her school skirt was torn up! Everyone could see her panties!

"I…uh…" Michiru's hands suddenly flew down to her sweater, as she desperately tried pulling it down over her wrecked skirt to cover herself, tears starting to form in the corners of her brown eyes. "I…I…"

It was no use. There was no way her sweater would stretch that low. It was just too short.

Ichigo watched with sympathetic eyes as she pulled harder on her sweater, gritting her teeth in an obviously-failing attempt to stop herself from crying.

He quickly proceeded to zip open and then shrug off his school jacket, before leaning forward towards Michiru, and gently placing it around her shoulders.

"Come on," he gently put his right arm over her shoulders and helped her back up onto her shaky feet. "Let's get out of here."

Now that Michiru was standing up straight, he noticed- much to his relief -that, because he was quite a bit taller than her; his jacket came down all the way to an inch above her knees, effectively preserving her modesty from any pervish eyes.

Picking up their respective bags with his left hand; he looked down at the slightly-trembling girl next to him. "We're heading to my house. We've gotta get those wounds cleaned up at the clinic, alright?"

He knew from years and years of fighting in school that the school nurse left at 12:00 to get back to her shift at the hospital. Seeing as it was 13:17 now, the chances of her being in her office was negative one. So, his home/clinic it was.

He only received a slight nod of her head in response, as Michiru was now staring at her shoes, a slight blush on her cheeks.

The brunette felt so humiliated; she knew that she probably couldn't, and _didn't_ want to make eye contact with anyone.

"Alright." he said while he started leading her to the front gate, his arm still firmly placed over her shoulders.

Most of the crowd had already dispersed, probably scared away by Uryu. But there were still a few lingering souls standing around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ichigo perhaps chasing after the two seniors and punching their heads off.

They had all been scared away quickly by the orange-haired teen though, as he fixed anyone who dared look at them with the most venomous glare he could muster, and, before long, he was guiding Michiru down the semi-busy streets of Karakura.

There was complete, unnerving- in Ichigo's opinion -silence between the two teens during the entire walk. He probably wasn't the best company at the moment, though. He was still silently fuming because of those two assholes, so talking really wasn't that high on his to-do list at the moment.

The orange-haired boy had taken a few sneak peeks at Michiru through the course of their walk, though. But she was obviously deep in thought as she kept staring at the pavement as they walked.

He had noticed about two blocks away from his house that the brunette, in addition to staring at the ground, now also had a small, thoughtful smile gracing her lips, which greatly confused him. Wasn't she like, injured and humiliated?

Unlocking the front door; he quickly ushered the brunette into the house and dropped their bags next to the coat hanger along with his shoes.

"Hello? Dad?"

It was Friday, so he knew his sisters had some afterschool tutorial classes until 16:00-ish. His Dad, on the other hand, should be around here somewhere.

Wandering into the kitchen, Michiru in tow, he immediately saw the little note on the refrigerator, obviously his Dad's handwriting.

' _Went out for lunch. Helping out at hospital afterwards. Will be back by 18:00._

 _Love you, my little pumpkins!_

 _Your big, loving Daddy!'_

Okay…

He turned away from the note. That was obviously not meant for _him_.

Letting out a quiet sigh, he turned back to Michiru, who was looking back at him with slight curiosity lighting up her eyes. "Come on," he started walking back out of the kitchen, motioning for the brunette to follow him with a bob of his head. "Follow me."

He made his way through the house, all the way to the back, and opened the door which led to the clinic section of the building, closing it again after Michiru walked in behind him.

"Okay," he stopped in front of a medical bed, its mattress covered with a white, sterile piece of cloth, and turned back to Michiru. "You can just sit here and wait." He motioned to the bed, before walking back towards the door.

"I'll be right back, 'kay?"

And with that; he briskly made his way to the upper level of the house, jumping the stairs two at a time.

He practically walked the door out of its hedges as he barged into Karin and Yuzu's room, making his way over to the younger of the twins' closet, situated to the left of the door.

While the rummaging through his younger sister's closet- pervert much –was pretty awkward; he did manage to sniff out a pair of Yuzu's old khaki-colored short-shorts.

The two brunettes- Yuzu and Michiru, that is –were at most a couple of inches apart in terms of height, so he figured this would fit the older girl comfortably.

Quickly exiting the room, making sure to close the door behind him; the orange-haired teen darted his way down the stairs again and practically jumped back into the medical wing of the building.

He found Michiru compliantly sitting on the medical bed, her legs lazily swinging back and forth over the edge.

"Here you go," Ichigo handed her the shorts, before pulling the white curtain, hanging from the roof, in between them for some privacy for Michiru. "Just change into those. I'll be right back. Just let me know when you're done, alright?"

"A-alright!"

Satisfied with the answer; he made his way over to the medical cabinet in the next room and took out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide along with a clean white cloth.

Michiru was still busy behind the curtain by the time he came back into the room. So, the orange-haired teen opted to wait against the doorframe.

After about two minutes of leaning, he noticed the white curtain rustling, and the brunette's head poked out a second later.

"Uhm, I'm done…"

Looking on as Michiru pulled the curtain back to the side; he noticed that the brunette was wearing Yuzu's shorts, and had also forgone her school sweater, which was neatly piled up on the floor, along with her torn-up school skirt and school shoes. He also saw his school jacket neatly folded up on the edge of the medical bed.

"Alright," he put the antiseptic and cloth down on the edge of the bed, before patting said bed with his hand.

"Hop on."

Michiru did as told and compliantly got back up onto the bed, her legs dangling over the side.

"Okay," he doused the cloth with the liquid before looking up at the brunette. "I'm gonna start with the big one on your leg, okay?"

Receiving a timid nod in reply, his hand stopped momentarily, hovering over the gash on the outside of her right thigh. "This is gonna sting. So get ready."

He didn't even give her a chance to retort, as he immediately pressed the antiseptic-doused cloth down on the cut, causing Michiru to let out a squeal and practically bolt up into the air.

But she was halted from jumping right off the bed.

Looking down; the brunette saw Ichigo's hand firmly placed just above her knee, effectively keeping her in place, while he was gently blowing over the now-cleaned wound.

His hot breath quickly started dulling the stinging pain from the antiseptic making contact with the open cut.

"Sorry, sorry…" he mumbled in between blowing the cut dry and looked up, only to find Michiru looking back down at him with questioning eyes.

"…what?" he frowned up at her in confusion. "I used to do this for Karin all the time when she was younger and came home from soccer with some cuts on her legs. So I've learned a thing or two about antiseptic over the years."

Turning his attention to the bottle of hydrogen peroxide; Ichigo missed the small smile that started forming on the brunette's face.

"Anyway, that one was the worst," he informed her, dousing the cloth again. "The others are gonna be a lot easier."

And so, he got to work on cleaning the rest of the cuts on Michiru's legs, starting with the two identical ones on her ankles, and gradually working his way up.

Neither of them spoke at all for a while, so the orange-haired teen worked on in silence.

It wasn't until he started with her right forearm, that the brunette suddenly spoke up.

"You know…"

Looking up from her arm, Ichigo saw her staring down at her school socks, that same little smile from their walk here lighting up her face yet again.

"For the longest time, I've been so afraid of you." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

Seeing the orange-haired boy frowning at her in obvious confusion out of the corner of her eye, the brunette's smile turned somewhat sad.

"You always look so scary; scowling and glaring at anything or anyone who looked at you or even talked to you a second too long. And you always get into fights." A slight frown made its way onto her face at what she was about to say next, while Ichigo had started cleaning the cuts on her right arm again.

"I never saw you smile at all for the first three years of high school. You just had a permanent scowl plastered on your face. You scared me. So I tried to stay as far away from you as I could, always making sure to disappear when you were around…"

Quickly glancing towards Ichigo again, she noted that he had finished up with her right arm, and was now halfway up the left.

But, more importantly, she noticed the deep frown on his face, and the hurt clearly evident in his half-downcast eyes as he worked on cleaning up the remainder of her wounds.

She swallowed briefly, before looking back down at her socks again.

"But these last few weeks were…different." She smiled again.

"Ever since that night we went out; I…I've gotten to know you better. And you aren't mean and grumpy. You're always so friendly…and make silly jokes. And you've never scowled at me. Not once."

The orange-haired teen had moved back down to her right leg in the meantime to put a large Band-Aid over that nasty gash, but still listened intently to what the brunette was saying.

"And…and what you did today…"

Pausing momentarily, the little brunette bit her lower lip, remembering the awful situation she found herself in not more than an hour ago.

"N-no one bothered to stand up for me, or even help me up! Except you." That small smile was gracing her lips again.

"Even though you always look so angry; you're nicer than all the 'nice people' I know in school. And after everything you've told me: Your Mom, how you always took care of your sisters when they were younger, the Soul Reapers and your powers; I can confidently say," she paused momentarily, finally looking at Ichigo, the smile on her face not wavering in the slightest. "That you're the sweetest, most caring person I've ever met."

There was silence for a few moments, as the orange-haired boy started wrapping some bandage around the Band-Aid-covered bruise on her leg for some extra protection, deep in thought.

In all truth, he had started seeing Michiru in a different light these last few weeks. At first he had blamed it on the fact that they were actually friends now. But that wasn't it.

When they talked or laughed together for some stupid silly joke, or sometimes when he found himself just looking at her when she was busy with something else; he would get this strange nervous-excited feeling in his stomach.

So it definitely wasn't because of their new friendship, because that didn't happen at all when was talking with Tatsuki or even Orihime.

But now, after everything that happened today, he was pretty sure that he finally understood why.

The way he so thoroughly enjoyed their little conversations.

The fact that the little brunette was radiantly beautiful in his eyes ever-so-suddenly. Even more so when one of those happy, beaming smiles graced her lips.

And then the events that unfolded this afternoon; the anger he felt upon seeing her sitting on the ground like that, injuries marring her petite frame.

He probably looked pretty calm to those around him, but oh, believe you him; he was _seething_ on the inside. If not for Uryu arriving when he did; those two jerks would have been on the receiving-end of one heck of a beating.

"There." He exclaimed as he stood back upright, finally done with tending to all of her wounds.

Putting the antiseptic and cloth down on the small table next to the bed; the orange-haired teen turned back to Michiru, before suddenly placing his hands on her upper arms.

This earned him a surprised squeak from the brunette, who was now looking up at him with wide, curious brown eyes.

He stared at her intently for what felt like quite a while, his hands still gently resting on her arms.

He was in love with her.

A small smile started forming on his face. There was no more denying it: He had feelings, deep feelings, for the brunette sitting in front of him. She was his perfect definition of normal…in a good way, mind you!

Just what he always wanted: Normality.

Slowly trailing his hands up and down her arms; Ichigo's smile brightened as he warmly stared into Michiru's own brown eyes.

"You don't have to be afraid of me." He exclaimed, his voice barely above a whisper, before giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "And you never had to be…"

He then tilted his head to the side before he slowly started inching his face closer and closer to her own.

He stopped mere millimetres away from Michiru's face, their respective noses almost touching the other's cheek as a result of his slightly-tilted head.

He glanced into her chocolate brown eyes for just an instant, before closing his own brown eyes and lowering his head just a little more.

His lips gently met her soft, pink ones in a sweet, simple kiss.

Instead of closing like Ichigo's; the brunette's eyes instead widened even more as she took in a sharp breath of air through her nose upon the boy's lips making contact with hers.

But her shock almost-immediately faded though, and her eyes quickly closed as she smiled against his lips, passion quickly clouding her worries.

The orange-haired teen pulled away slightly, breaking the kiss. He then took in a deep breath through his nose, before cupping the brunette's face, gently tracing his thumbs over her soft, now-rosy-coloured cheeks.

Michiru responded by lightly gripping onto his shirt with both her hands, pulling him just a bit closer to her.

And with that; Ichigo leaned down again, his lips meeting Michiru's in another sweet kiss.

And this time; the little brunette kissed him back, tightly gripping his shirt in her fists, once again smiling against his lips…

 **[THREE WEEKS LATER…]**

"Hmm-hmm…"

Yuzu was humming a silly little tune to herself, a bright smile on her face as she worked on the kitchen counter, placing a few bowls onto a tray.

"Oh!" she clucked before making a short dash to her left and quickly switched the oven off. "I almost forgot about the rice!"

Glancing into the steaming pot; the little brunette let out a relieved sigh before moving back to placing more utensils on the tray. Fortunately the rice looked just fine. Thank goodness.

Not even the almost-burned rice could dampen the little brunette's mood though, as a big, happy smile continuously occupied her young face while she filled each bowl with rice.

The reason?

Simple. Her brother.

Yuzu let out a girlish little giggle while making her way over to the refrigerator.

Her big brother, grumpy face and all, had gotten himself a girlfriend!

When he informed Karin and her that he was going out one night, she had made a silly remark about him going out on a date, only for her brother to nod in the affirmative!

She couldn't believe her ears!

Even Karin's eyes had widened in complete shock, and that says _a lot_.

Michiru Ogawa.

She looked up at the ceiling in thought, before taking a jug of ice tea from the fridge and then made her way back to her little old tray.

Gosh, he had never even mentioned her before, ever.

And Yuzu had absolutely no idea why!

The older brunette was so polite and friendly. A bit shy if anything, but nevertheless! A very nice girl.

Ichigo could do _a lot_ worse in her eyes, she thought to herself while putting the jug back in the fridge, before picking up the tray and made her way out of the kitchen area.

The youngest Kurosaki sibling let out another girlish giggle as she hastily started making her way up the stairs, carefully balancing the tray and the items on it with both hands. After all, she didn't feel like cleaning rice and ice tea off the floor all afternoon.

The young brunette came to a standstill in front of her brother's closed door. Momentarily balancing the tray on her knee in order to get a hand free, she managed to wiggle the doorknob enough for said door to swing open somewhat.

"I…hope you're all hungry!" the little brunette called out while nudging the door open with her shoulder, careful of the tray and its contents resting in her hands.

"Oh Yuzu!" The only other brunette in the room clucked as she seemingly jumped through the air towards Yuzu. "Here, let me help you."

A bright smile made its way onto Yuzu's face as the other girl opened the door for her. "Thanks, Michiru!"

"Oh, it's no problem!" Michiru giggled as she stepped out of the way, allowing the younger brunette to enter the room, before closing the door again.

Yes, Michiru being in her brother's room might look a bit weird, but she wasn't in there all alone, nor was she alone in there with _Ichigo_ , for that matter.

Nope. You see, it went down like this:

Today is Friday...which, by the way, is actually completely irrelevant, save for the fact that the twins had tutorial classes after school.

But luckily for the two of them, those classes ended earlier than usual. Almost a good two _hours_ earlier.

Upon entering their house, they had expectedly found Ichigo's shoes neatly placed on the mat next to the front door.

But much to their surprise; they had also found a pair of female school shoes lying next to their brother's clearly-larger pair of shoes.

The youngest Kurosaki sibling had bolted up the stairs, straight towards his room.

Now, Ichigo did have a few female friends, but he rarely invited any of them to their house, let alone by _themselves_.

So there was only one logical answer: Michiru.

Oh, how she had prayed to Kami that she wouldn't catch the two of them doing something they _really_ shouldn't be doing yet!

Not that her big brother was like that, though!

But, he _is_ a teenage boy. And Michiru _is_ a teenage girl, a very _pretty_ teenage girl at that. She knew what she was talking about, believe you her. She read about it in school, thank you very much.

Luckily, however, she had found her brother's door wide open, and said brother had been sitting crossed-leg on his bed, a couple of open books sprawled out around him and busy chewing on the back-end of his pencil.

And the owner of the other pair of shoes, who _was_ _indeed_ Michiru, had been sitting at Ichigo's desk, her own open books scattered all over the said desk.

They had only been doing homework, much to the young brunette's immense relief.

Speaking of homework; that is what they were all doing in Ichigo's room at the moment, by the way.

The twins had homework to do, the teens had homework to do. At Yuzu's continuous insistence; they had all decided to work together in her brother's room. Make it a little bonding session, if you will.

Heck, even _Karin_ had decided to join them, sitting on the floor against the bed, right next to her twin, while the two older teens had stayed put in their previous spots: On the bed and at the desk respectively.

But alas, her brother was not known for his hospitality skills. So when three of the four children in the room's stomachs let out its own respective growl ,- which, coincidently, were those of the three Kurosaki siblings (Meh, probably runs in the family.) -Yuzu took it upon herself to go make something to eat for everyone.

And now here they were, sitting around in Ichigo's room having lunch, taking a break from homework and just chatting amongst each other.

And Yuzu can honestly say that she hasn't seen her brother as happy as when he looks at Michiru, smiles in her direction if she laughs at something, or simply just talks to her, in a long, long time.

But lunch unfortunately came and went and before any of them knew it, their noses were buried in books once more. There was homework to be done, after all, and none of them were particularly interested in struggling with it on Sunday evening.

So a good 42 minutes later, they were finally done.

Karin had fled at the first possible opportunity presented to her - After her homework was finished, of course – to go and play some soccer with her friends, while Yuzu went to put her books away and wash up the dishes, and also possibly get started on dinner.

Ichigo was busy packing his own books away. Michiru was still sitting at the desk, her books packed away quite some time ago, sipping on the last of her ice tea.

The orange-haired teen let out an audible sigh as he straightened up, his back muscles getting a good stretch in the process. Finally, everything relating to schoolwork, which included _packing away_ said schoolwork, was done and dusted.

The brunette glanced over at her boyfriend, before suddenly remembering that her arm was resting on one of his books she was using.

"Oh, wait!"

Quickly jumping up from her chair; Michiru put her now-empty glass down on the table, grabbed the book and scurriedly took the two steps required in order to stand right next to the boy. "I almost forgot about this one."

Ichigo turned to face the brunette and, upon laying eyes on his book, let out a semi-annoyed, semi-teasing-his-girlfriend groan. "But I _just_ got everything to fit into my bag!" the orange-haired teen complained. "Now I have to take everything out again and try to force everything back into my bag, _again_!"

Michiru, for her part, was giving her boyfriend a blank stare, still holding his book out to him.

He let out a long sigh, before accepting his book from her in defeat and narrowed his eyes in feigned exasperation. "You know, for such a pretty girl-"

"Thank you!"

"…"

The brunette was now smiling brightly at him, obviously chuffed with the compliment. Heh…adorable.

He cleared his throat momentarily to get himself back on track. "…As I was saying. For such a pretty girl, you can be very mean." He mock-pouted. "Aaaand you drink ice tea _very_ slow…"

"Hehe!" Michiru couldn't help chuckling at the boy's fake pout, and swiftly slapped him on the chest. "Stop that, Ichigo!"

The brunette's laughter quickly died out though, her hand still firmly placed on Ichigo's chest, Ichigo's very _muscled_ chest.

"Ooooh…" she stared in awe as she rubbed her hand up and down her boyfriend's chest, her fingers slowly sliding over the hard, lean muscle.

Now, they had been dating for about two weeks, so they did share the occasional hug and…kiss. It was all still pretty new for both of them, so they usually just held hands. But they _did_ hug, and they _did_ kiss…passionately…well, sometimes.

Their little kissing sessions usually consisted of little pecks on the lips. But there was also the occasional experimental smooch, which got both their hearts beating pretty darn quickly.

And while she knew that Ichigo is pretty muscular, thanks to his arms being constantly on show to the whole world when wearing his school shirt; she had no idea- if the hard chest her hand was resting on was any indication to go by -that the rest of his body was even more…yummy.

A blush crept up onto the brunette's cheeks as that singular thought ran through her head. She imagined that his upper body was more than likely just as sculpted – if not more so - as those of the male models she sometimes saw in the magazines she bought on occasion.

She was a teenage girl, for goodness' sake! Such hormone-driven thoughts were bound to pop up in her imagination from time-to-time.

She softly blew out a breath of air, before slowly looking up towards her boyfriend's face, only to find him staring down at her with wide eyes, his cheeks rapidly gaining a red overtone.

But those observations hardly registered in her mind at the moment, though. She stared straight back up into his eyes, and, before giving him any chance whatsoever to ruin this moment for her with inevitable, incoherent babbling, she roughly smashed her lips onto his, her fingernails digging into his skin through his shirt.

As soon as their lips touched; Ichigo could practically _hear_ his legs give out under him, and, before he could catch himself, he fell backwards onto his bed.

The brunette fell on top of him, her grip pulling her along, but her lips never left his, and she was now sitting uncomfortably on top of her boyfriend.

She did break the kiss momentarily though, and started shifting on top of the boy to get into a more comfortable position. Once she was straddling his waist; she leaned down and smashed her lips onto Ichigo's once more, without so much as looking at him once.

The orange-haired teen's shock quickly evaporated this time, and his eyes closed almost immediately after Michiru's lips touched his.

Her hands were slowly rubbing up and down his chest again, and he couldn't suppress the pleasurable shiver than ran down his spine.

The brunette felt Ichigo's breath hitch, and immediately knew that he was thoroughly enjoying her hands caressing his chest.

So she moved her hands a little lower, and his entire body tensed as her fingernails grazed over his shirt-covered abdomen, causing her to feel every inch of his seemingly-perfect abs hardening under her touch.

A small moan escaped her mouth, before she parted her lips slightly, asking for entry by gently licking his bottom lip.

Ichigo responded by resting his one hand on the small of her back, nervously parting his own lips while rubbing her arm with his other hand.

Michiru almost-instantly deepened the kiss, and another soft moan escaped her as their tongues met.

The two of them awkwardly fumbled around with their tongues, nervously teasing the other's respective appendage with hasty, inexperienced touches.

"Mmmm…" Michiru moaned into her boyfriend's mouth, her fingertips once again tracing over the war-hardened muscles on his chest and stomach, which tensed and flexed in response to her pleasurable touch.

She was pretty sure her cheeks were cherry red, because she was feeling _very hot_. She could practically _feel_ the heat radiating off her body. Oh boy…

And her at-the-moment-unusually- _unprudish_ boyfriend was blushing up a storm as well. That she was certain of.

None of this mattered to her right now, though.

They had finally found a mutual pace and rhythm, and their tongues were now occupied in a nervous, inexperienced spar.

The brunette let out a content sigh as Ichigo's hands found their way onto her upper arms, his long fingers inching their way under her sleeves, before they slowly started tracing little circular patterns on her soft skin.

She in turn ran her fingers through his hair, placing her free hand on her boyfriend's cheek as she tilted her head a little to deepen the kiss just a bit more.

And just like that; everything became so much more _loving_. Their actions. Their breathing. Even the skin-on-skin contact was suddenly so much more shudder-inducing.

Their surroundings were slowly fading out around them, as they got lost in the moment. Lost in each othe-

 _*KNOCK KNOCK*_

"It looks like I forgot a glass in he-EEP!"

Michiru had practically shot up into the air at hearing someone knock on the door and the talking that followed. Looking over her shoulder towards said door, her eyes quickly widened in surprise.

Ichigo snuck a peek at the door around his girlfriend's slightly-curvy left hip, shock almost-immediately taking over his facial expression as well.

"…Y-Yuzu?"

Yes. Yuzu was standing in the doorway, her hand still resting on the doorknob as she stared at them with wide eyes, her mouth agape, and her cheeks _very_ quickly reddening.

Her big brother's voice quickly brought her back to reality, though. She shook her head from side-to-side a few times before her eyes focussed on the sight of Michiru straddling her brother's waist.

"…uhm…"

He audibly gulped, carefully studying his youngest sister's facial expression.

"Uh…it's not what it looks like…?"

Damn. That sounded weak, even to _him_. But it was the truth, though.

It really _wasn't_ what it looked like!

They were just…making out. Which, by the way, was totally _amazing_.

But still! That was about it. And he _knew_ that _Yuzu_ knew that as well. It was painfully obvious. Michiru was practically sitting on his _stomach_ , for Kami's sake, and their hands weren't anywhere near those 'forbidden' areas.

Anyway, the younger brunette continued _gawking_ at the two teenagers a few seconds longer before speaking up again.

"I'm sorry!" she quickly covered her eyes with her palms. "I didn't see anything! I-I'll just come back later!"

Then youngest Kurosaki sibling then started turning on the spot, blindly searching for the door. Satisfied that she was facing its general direction, the brunette quickly started walking-* _SMACK_ *…straight into the wall.

"Ouw! My face…"

After cringing at the sight of Yuzu colliding face-first with the wall, Ichigo watched as his little sister awkwardly grabbed hold of the door, her other hand vigorously rubbing her stinging face.

"I didn't see _anything_ , okay! Just forget I was here! Uh…be safe! Hehe! Uh…okay forget I said that!"

Both Ichigo and Michiru's eyes widened, their respective blushes intensifying at Yuzu's _very_ weird joke. Kami, he had the strangest family.

And then she practically leapt out of the room, the door slamming shut behind her, leaving the two teenagers alone once more.

They listened as the sound of the youngest Kurosaki sibling's rapid footsteps became fainter as she walked down the hallway.

Once the hallway was quiet again, Ichigo dropped his head back down onto the bed, audibly blowing out a breath of air.

He felt a sudden weight on his chest almost immediately after his head hit the mattress.

Looking down, all he saw was a mop of brown hair; his _girlfriend's_ mop of brown hair.

Michiru was resting her forehead on the boy's chest, her eyes closed and a blush still stubbornly present on her cheeks.

He stared at her short-cropped hair, thinking about what the hell just happened: His little sister had caught them making out.

Damn. If his Dad had to find out about this…

Only one word came up at the thought of _that_ …

"Crap."

As soon as the word left his mouth, Michiru's right hand shot out, and she lightly flicked him on the nose.

"…Ouw."

"Don't swear. It's mean."

He blinked at the top of the brunette's head, before a small smile started forming on his lips, which in turn turned into a light chuckle.

He then gently folded his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him, before nuzzling his cheek into her brown hair.

"Yes ma'am."

Michiru smiled against his chest, and started tracing small circles on his right arm with her fingernails.

"Good boy…"

 **[TWO WEEKS LATER…]**

"Mmmmm…"

Damn, how he loved it when Michiru moans into his mouth while they're making out.

Which was what they were doing: Making out.

Michiru's parents were at a corporate meeting again, so the two of them had decided to go on a date, their fifth one…or was it the sixth? Doesn't matter.

Anyway, Michiru had suggested that it would be nice to go see a movie and Ichigo, _trying_ to be the gentleman Yuzu was _trying_ to teach him to be, insisted that the brunette pick the movie.

Big mistake.

He found himself sitting through a Romantic genre film which she practically _squealed_ about. Now if it were up to him; they would have watched a cool Action or Superhero film, not this _boring_ Rom-Com.

But hey, a happy Michiru makes a happy Ichigo. Plus he got to hold his girlfriend's hand for a whole uninterrupted hour and a half.

They had dinner at the 'Noodle Woodle Moodle!', just as they did on their first non-date.

What? It had a nice atmosphere, and the food wasn't bad either.

Their walk to Michiru's home was rather uneventful, the two of them simply engaging in small-talk and enjoying each other's company with their hands entwined.

And before either of them knew it, they were standing on the patio in front of her house, lip-locked and their tongues engaged in an ever-improving spar.

"Mmm…" she tightened her arms around his neck, another moan escaping as her boyfriend gently massaged her tongue with his own.

Ichigo, whose hands were resting on her cheeks, responded by gently running his thumbs over them, revelling the closeness.

They kissed a few more seconds, before the need for air became too much and they begrudgingly broke the kiss, with Michiru resting her forehead against his chest.

She broke her hold around his neck and then folded her arms around his middle, while Ichigo responded by folding _his_ arms around her shoulders, pulling her small body against him, and rested his chin on her head, breathing in her fruity-flavour-shampooed hair.

They stood like that for a little while, just enjoying each other's presence.

"So," Ichigo spoke up after a few minutes, his hand coming up to stroke through her mop of brown hair.

"Hm?"

"…You still afraid of me?"

He felt- rather than heard –the brunette softly giggling against his chest.

"Uh-uh…" she lightly shook her head from side-to-side.

He felt that too.

"I'm not afraid of you…" she mumbled into his chest, her hands slowly making their way up to rest on his chest on either side of her head.

"But," she suddenly looked up at him and licked her somewhat bruised lips, a shy smile starting to form on them. "I _am_ afraid of… _losing_ you…"

His eyes widened slightly at Michiru's declaration, before a fond smile slowly started making its way onto his face, his eyes softening as well.

"Don't be." He stated, slowly rubbing up her arms, then her shoulders, until his hands finally settled on the brunette's slightly-pink cheeks. The air was a bit chilly, and her cheeks clearly showed it.

"I'm not going anywhere, 'kay?"

Michiru looked down shyly, but nodded nonetheless.

The small smile on Ichigo's face widened, and he bent down slightly to leave a fleeting peck on the brunette's lips.

"Good."

Michiru let out a soft, nosey chuckle, before she got up on her tip-toes and softly pressed her lips up against his.

He eagerly responded and, before they knew it, they were slowly, lovingly making out again, her hands gripping his shirt tightly, while his hands caressed her cheeks…

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **Right, so that's that…for now.**

 **I'm not going to change the status to complete, because I'll come back to this and probably redo the entire last season, with my own little twists and such.**

 **Don't forget to review please. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.**

 **Also your vote…**

 **Hope you enjoyed.**

 **Cheers.**


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